Court Opinion

ID: 9767202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:12:30.359452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:02.967807
License: Public Domain

McKAY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. It is my view that in the absence of fundamental error this court does not have the authority to reverse a criminal conviction on the ground of “unassigned error in the interest of justice,” where appellant waived the alleged error. There was no objection or exception by appellant to the action of the trial court in instructing the jury not to consider the reputation testimony of Sam Fowler, Harley Wright and Jerry West, and there is no ground of error on appeal. Appellant should have called the error to the attention of the trial court at some point during the trial to permit the court to correct its error; he should also have complained on appeal of the trial court action.
It is said in the recent case of Rogers v. State, 640 S.W.2d 248, 264 (Tex.Cr.App.1982):
It is a general rule that appellate courts will not consider any error which counsel for accused could have called, but did not *305call, to the attention of the trial court at the time when such error could have been avoided or corrected by the trial court. Esquivel v. State, 595 S.W.2d 516 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), cert. denied 449 U.S. 986, 101 S.Ct. 408, 66 L.Ed.2d 251 (1980).... This general rule also applies to constitutional questions. Mendoza v. State, 552 S.W.2d 444 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).
The general rule is that to preserve error there must be an objection in the trial court.
“Failure to object at trial waives error, if any.” Esquivel v. State, supra; Pizzalato v. State, 513 S.W.2d 566, 568-9 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).
To complain about the admissibility of a confession, even a violation of Miranda, and “other federally guaranteed constitutional rights, there must be an objection in the trial court.” Ex parte Bagley, 509 S.W.2d 332, 333 (Tex.Cr.App.1974), and cases there cited.
Boulware v. State, 542 S.W.2d 677, 682-3 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), holds that failure to timely object waives any error in the admission of evidence and presents nothing for review, and further says:
In view of the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States that a constitutional guarantee may be waived by a defendant’s counsel for the failure to object such as to the improper organization of a grand jury at the trial level and our decisions above discussed on waiver, we hold that the failure to object to the improper exclusion of a venire member waives that right and it cannot be considered on appeal.
The court further held that all cases holding to the contrary were overruled.
Even if appellant was not required to object or except to the action of the trial court in withdrawing from the jury the reputation evidence, because of the posture of the case at the time, he has failed to present such action of the trial court as error on appeal, and has therefore waived same. The latest expression we find on the issue before us is in McClure v. State, Tex.Cr.App., No. 62,125, delivered March 9, 1983, in which the court said:
On original submission a panel of this Court reversed the conviction for erroneous admission of evidence. The panel found the error to be fundamental, it not having been raised in the brief. Just as error at trial may be waived by failure to object on appeal error may be abandoned by failure to assert it in the brief. Because the issue was not raised by appellant before this court, the panel should not have considered it. The matter does not constitute fundamental error that should be considered in the interest of justice. The State’s motion for rehearing is granted.
Considering the foregoing authorities it is my view that any objection to the trial court’s exclusion of the reputation testimony was waived by failing to object; that there is no ground of error asserted on appeal; that due process or other constitutional grounds have been waived; that there was no fundamental error; and that we have no authority to reverse a case under these circumstances on the ground of “unassigned error in the interest of justice.”