Court Opinion

ID: 9681321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:48:15.07664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:33.286878
License: Public Domain

DALLY, Judge
dissenting.
I cannot agree that a single juror’s vote for an increased punishment following any *486-498discussion of the parole laws denies a defendant of a fair and impartial trial such as would require the granting of a new trial. This is the rule announced by the majority.
I iterate my view in which I was joined by the Presiding Judge and two other Judges in Sanders v. State, 580 S.W.2d 349 (Tex.Cr.App.1979).
“To show that a jury’s discussion of the parole law constitutes reversible error, we should re-adopt the test, extracted from a number of earlier cases, which was stated and discussed, but rejected in Heredia v. State, 528 S.W.2d 847 (Tex.Cr. App.1975). That test is that for reversible error to result, it must be shown that there was:
“(1) a misstatement of the law
“(2) asserted as a fact
“(3) by one professing to know the law
“(4) which is relied upon by other jurors
“(5) who for that reason changed their vote to a harsher punishment.
“The cases from which this test has been extracted are fully discussed in Heredia v. State, supra.”
I dissent.
ONION, P. J., and W. C. DAVIS, J., join in this opinion.