Court Opinion

ID: 9759420
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:15:37.303402+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:04:07.236755
License: Public Domain

OPINION
DALLY, Judge.
This is an appeal from a conviction for the offense of murder; the punishment is imprisonment for life.
In two grounds of error the appellant complains that his voir dire examination of the jury was restricted to the extent that he could not intelligently exercise his right to make peremptory challenges. He argues that the court erred in not permitting him to ascertain the prospective juror’s attitudes and feelings about assessing a minimum punishment of five years’ imprisonment for the offense of murder and in not permitting him to ascertain the prospective juror’s attitudes and feelings for granting or denying probation to a defendant after his conviction for the offense of murder. We conclude after considering the record that appellant’s counsel was not allowed sufficient latitude in voir dire examination. The matters complained of require that the judgment be reversed.
The right to be represented by counsel, guaranteed by Article 1, Section 10 of the Texas Constitution, encompasses the right of counsel to question the members of the jury panel in order to intelligently exercise his peremptory challenges. Mathis v. State, 167 Tex.Cr.R. 627, 322 S.W.2d 629 (1959); DeLaRosa v. State, 414 S.W.2d 668 (Tex.Cr.App.1967); Burkett v. State, 516 S.W.2d 147 (Tex.Cr.App.1974); Hernandez v. State, 508 S.W.2d 853 (Tex.Cr.App.1974); Abron v. State, 523 S.W.2d 405 (Tex.Cr.App.1975). The trial court, in its sound discretion, can and should control the voir dire examination of the venire; however, the permissible areas of questioning the panel in order to exercise peremptory challenges are broad and cannot be unnecessarily limited. Smith v. State, 513 S.W.2d 823 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).
Bias against the range of punishment is a proper area of inquiry for both *837challenges for cause and peremptory challenges. When the contention is that the trial court erred in denying a challenge for cause, no reversible error is shown unless the defendant exhausted his peremptory challenges and one or more objectionable juror sat on the jury. However, when the question is asked for the purpose of exercising peremptory challenges, the test for injury is entirely different. If the question is proper, an answer denied prevents intelligent use of the peremptory challenge and harm is shown. Smith v. State, supra. As was stated in Mathis v. State, supra, . . it is immaterial how the jurors would have answered the question, for, whatever their answers, the appellant was entitled to know their answers in order to enable him to exercise his peremptory challenges.”
In Plair v. State, 102 Tex.Cr.R. 628, 279 S.W. 267 (1926), it was held to be reversible error to refuse the request to interrogate the jurors individually as to their views concerning the suspended sentence law and whether they objected to giving application thereto in a proper case. The Court said:
“[T]he right to appear by counsel carries with it the right of counsel to interrogate each juror individually, to the end that he may form his own conclusions after this personal contact with the juror as to whether, in the counsel’s judgment, he would be acceptable to him, or whether on the other hand he should exercise a peremptory challenge to keep him off the jury.”
In the instant case the court first qualified the jury panel as a whole concerning general areas of the law. The court explained the range of punishment and the probation law as it applied to this case. The court asked the panel whether there was anyone who could not consider probation in a murder case. No prospective juror stated to the court that he or she could not fairly consider probation. Thereafter the prosecutor questioned the panel and individual jurors concerning the range of punishment and the law of probation. At that time one juror stated to the court and the prosecutor that if the appellant was found guilty of murder he could not consider probation as a form of punishment. This prospective juror was excused upon the appellant’s challenge for cause. When the appellant’s attorney questioned the panel concerning the range of punishment and the probation law two more jurors expressed reservations about probation. Appellant’s complaints concern the following ruling by the trial court during the voir dire examination:
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: Mr. Acuff, our Law provides and we anticipate the Court will instruct you that the minimum penalty for a Robbery case or a Murder case in this State is five years confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections.

H* * *

“What I am asking you and this panel as a whole is: Can you imagine a fact-type case where there was a robbery and a person was killed in that robbery allegedly where you could give fair consideration for the minimum penalty of five years?
“In other words, do you feel that five years is too little and you could not in good conscience vote for five years?
“MR. ACUFF: If the man was guilty, is what you’re saying?
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: Yes.
“MR. STRICKLAND: Your Honor, before the venireman answers, we would have an objection. This calls for the Jur- or to engage in speculation. I think the proper question is: Whether or not they could give fair consideration to the entire range of punishment and not sit here and imagine specific fact situations.
“THE COURT: I’ll sustain the objection. It’s hypothetical and I’ll sustain the objection.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: Well, let me put it this way: Mr. Acuff, and ladies and gentlemen of the panel as a whole, is there anybody on this panel that has strong feelings against any Law that provides for a minimum penalty of five years’ confinement in the penitentiary for Murder?
*838“Let’s just say Murder, for instance — Is there anybody on the panel that has strong feelings against that minimum penalty of five years?
“MR. STRICKLAND: We would again object, Your Honor. It’s not a question of whether or not they have feelings for or against.
“The question is whether or not they could follow the Law.
“THE COURT: Yeah, I will ask the question. Is there anybody on the panel who couldn’t follow that Law and consider the full range of punishment; that is, life or any term between five and ninety-nine years depending on what the facts are in the case?
“He’s not asking you — He can’t ask you about this case because you haven’t heard the facts.
“Anybody have such a prejudice against that range of punishment that they couldn’t consider the full range of punishment in a proper case?
“Okay.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: Of course, I object to the Court’s Ruling because the question that I asked, I felt, was a proper question and if such — so designed that it would enable me to gain information by voir dire examination which is the whole purpose of this situation here so that I can intelligently exercise peremptory challenges.
“And unless the witness is permitted to answer that question that I asked him— unless the prospective Juror is permitted to answer that question that I have asked, I object to the Court’s Ruling and the effect to the Court’s Ruling — I deem it so that the Court may take harsh — punitive action against me if I try to elicit this information from this prospective Juror and such Ruling of the Court is an undue restraint upon the Defendant’s right to effective assistance of Counsel at each and every stage of the proceedings.
“THE COURT: Well, I have already Ruled. If I was wrong, I was wrong. The Ruling has already been made.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: All right.
“Now, I know there is one lady back there — number forty-seven, that probably feels that under no circumstances vote for probation.
“MR. BENNETT: Your Honor, I’m going to object.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: In a Murder-type case.
“MR. BENNETT: Your Honor, I’m going to object to him voir diring and questioning a prospective Juror that we in all likelihood will not reach.
“THE COURT: I’ll sustain the objection. We can’t get back to forty-seven.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: Well, I wasn’t directing this at her. I was just predicating it for the whole panel.
“I wanted to ask the whole panel: Is there anybody else that feels right now, having heard other people express this strong feeling that you may be prompted to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak— some people sometimes express their true feelings when they see whether or not anybody else has got the courage to speak up.
“Now, is there anybody on this panel here that hasn’t before announced any feelings they may have against recommended probation in a case of Murder or Robbery — Aggravated Robbery, Armed Robbery?
“MR. BENNETT: Your Honor, I’m going to object to the form of the question. It’s not whether they are going to recommend it in this case or any Robbery case.
“It’s whether they are going to fairly consider it.
“THE COURT: I’ll sustain the objection. It’s a question of whether you will fairly consider it.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: That is not what I was asking. I asked if there was anybody here that has got some strong feelings against it and that is what I want to know by this voir dire examination so that I can exercise my peremptory challenges with some degree of intelligence.
“I would like to ask that question and have these people answer it.
*839“THE COURT: Ask your question again.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: Is there anybody on this panel now that have some strong feelings against recommending probation as a form of punishment in— first of all, a Murder case?
“MR. BENNETT: Your Honor, I’m going to make the same objection.
“THE COURT: Okay, I’ll sustain the objection. It’s not a matter of whether you have strong feelings. It’s whether you can fairly consider it, ladies and gentlemen, and you have to be able to consider the full range of punishment including probation.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: I want to object to the effect of the Court’s Ruling.
“THE COURT: I’ll sustain the objection.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: It’s denying me the opportunity by propounding questions on voir dire examination here to elicit from these people whether or not they’ve got strong feelings against it and I’m entitled to know more than whether they pay lip service to it, Judge.
“THE COURT: I have already Ruled.
“MR. BLANKENSHIP: I except the Court’s Ruling.”
Appellant’s attorney should have been allowed to question the prospective jurors concerning their feelings about the range of punishment and probation so that he could intelligently exercise his peremptory challenges. The trial court’s refusal to allow such questioning deprived the appellant of a valuable right and was an abuse of discretion. Plair v. State, supra; Hernandez v. State, supra; Abron v. State, supra.
On appeal the State’s principal argument is that the appellant’s counsel’s questions were repetitive of those propounded by the court and prosecutor. We are not favorably impressed with this argument. So long as the method of jury selection long used in this State prevails — as opposed to practice in federal court — defense counsel may not be precluded from the traditional voir dire examination because the questions asked are repetitious of those asked by the court and prosecutor.
We do not necessarily hold that the precise questions used by defense counsel in this case must be permitted in all cases, but we are holding that the defense counsel must have a fair opportunity to interrogate the prospective jurors so that he may intelligently exercise his right to peremptorily challenge some of them.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.