Alvarez v. State

804 S.W.2d 617, 1991 WL 16811
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 13, 1991
Docket08-90-00195-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 804 S.W.2d 617 (Alvarez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alvarez v. State, 804 S.W.2d 617, 1991 WL 16811 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

OPINION

WOODARD, Justice.

This is an appeal from a denial of habeas corpus relief in the 346th District Court. Appellant seeks a double jeopardy bar to further prosecution for injury to a child in cause number 55866, pending on the docket of another El Paso court, the 34th Judicial District Court of El Paso County, Texas. A prior trial of that cause commenced on October 2, 1989. A jury was selected and sworn the following day, October 3, jeopardy thereby attaching. On October 5, the court granted prior defense Motions for Mistrial. These motions concerned prejeo-pardy errors by the court and prosecution. The motions were initially overruled prior to the attachment of jeopardy, but were reconsidered and granted after jeopardy. The court inquired of the defense as to their posture on the motions. The defense responded that they were neither re-urged nor withdrawn and could not be reconsidered by the court. The court, therefore, considered the motions still subject to further ruling and granted them on the basis of individual and cumulative deprivation of a fair trial.

The ruling on these prejeopardy mistrial motions arose during untimely proceedings under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). On the basis of the State’s use of eight peremptory challenges against hispanic members of the jury panel, Appellant lodged a Batson complaint and sought the appropriate evidentiary hearing after jury selection but before administration of the oath and discharge of the remainder of the panel. Over objection, the court dismissed the panel and conducted the evidentiary hearing after the petit jury was sworn.

Ultimately, the court did not rule on the Batson complaint, granting a mistrial on the other prejeopardy motions. The asserted errors upon which these motions were based included:

[619]*619(1) Improper, extensive voir dire of the jury panel by the trial judge, particularly in the areas of reasonable doubt, witness credibility and propriety of punishment;
(2) Exposure to the panel of the anticipated testimony of witnesses in the context of discussing the above issues;
(3) Exposure of the fact that the Appellant’s wife, a codefendant, had reached an agreement with the State in exchange for her testimony, that she had entered a plea of guilty to injury to the child by omission and that based upon a State recommendation she had been placed on probation for ten years;
(4) Profane and prejudicial side-bar comments by the prosecutor concerning defense counsel’s voir dire presentation, made within the presence and possible hearing of the jury panel;
(5) Pejorative, prejudicial comment by the prosecutor concerning defense counsel in the hallway, outside the courtroom, at a time when panel members were arriving for the morning session.

Appellant presents three points of error. The first asserts that it was error to grant a mistrial purportedly on the basis of Appellant’s prejeopardy motions which had already been ruled upon and were no longer being actively urged after jeopardy attached. The second point, assuming the first point to be correct, asserts that the court’s, in effect, sua sponte mistrial order was not supported by manifest necessity. Finally, Appellant asserts that the Motions for Mistrial were intentionally provoked by the court and prosecution to lead to a mistrial and a possible loss of rights under the double jeopardy clause.

At the outset, we disregard the purely semantic differences which may exist prior to jeopardy with regard to Motions to Quash the Array as opposed to Motions for Mistrial. As noted by Appellant, various authorities treat the two as synonymous. See e.g., 3 Teague and Helft, Texas Criminal Practice Guide, § 72.03[6] (1990). Appellant himself employed both phrasmgs during the voir dire segment.

With regard to Appellant’s first point of error, we reject a flat rule that once an objection or motion is ruled upon the court may not reconsider the point and alter his ruling. We understand the backup comfort which defense counsel may experience in obtaining what would appear to be assured reversible error and the consternation attending a reversal of the offensive ruling, removing the defense’s ultimate safety net. The constitution and rules of procedure, however, are primarily intended to insure the right to a fair trial and are not intended to create a vested right in reversible error. The various rules of procedure are replete with examples of situations in which a court may alter an initial ruling. See e.g., Tex.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. art. 38.22, § 6 (Vernon 1979); Tex.R.App.P. 30(b); Tex.R. Crim.Evid. 104(b). Williams v. State, 94 Tex.Crim. 60, 249 S.W. 852 (1923); Lott v. State, 60 Tex.Crim. 162, 131 S.W. 553 (1910).

Appellant suggests without persuasive authority that the court’s inherent power to reverse its rulings does not traverse the point at which jeopardy attaches. Herein lies the peculiar nature of the case before us. The prejeopardy motions were overruled at that time, but the court reversed its position after jeopardy attached. Obviously, the only significance, and that invoked by the Appellant, concerns the applicability of the basic rules of double jeopardy and certain corollaries concerning prose-cutorial misconduct and provocation.

A mistrial granted prior to attachment of jeopardy poses no double jeopardy bar. After jeopardy attaches, a mistrial granted upon defense request also avoids the double jeopardy bar, United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 91 S.Ct. 547, 27 L.Ed.2d 543 (1971), unless the defense request was intentionally provoked by prosecutorial misconduct. Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 102 S.Ct. 2083, 72 L.Ed.2d 416 (1982). A mistrial granted by the trial judge sua sponte can only be upheld if based upon manifest necessity. Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. at 683-684, 102 S.Ct. at 2093-2094, [620]*62072 L.Ed.2d at 429-30; Arizona v. Washington, 434 U.S. 497, 98 S.Ct. 824, 54 L.Ed.2d 717 (1978).

As noted, in the case before us, the defense complaints were lodged and overruled prior to jeopardy attaching; the change in ruling to grant the mistrial occurred after jeopardy attached. Two United States Supreme Court decisions offer some guidance in the proper resolution of the present appeal. United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 57 L.Ed.2d 65 (1978); Lee v. United States, 432 U.S. 23, 97 S.Ct. 2141, 53 L.Ed.2d 80 (1977). In Lee, after the prosecutor’s opening statement, but before attachment of jeopardy in the bench trial, the defense moved to dismiss the prosecution due to a defective charging instrument. The court preliminarily denied the motion but indicated he would review the matter at the first opportunity. Jeopardy attached, and a two hour evidentiary segment took place (the State’s case-in-chief).

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Alvarez v. State
804 S.W.2d 617 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)

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804 S.W.2d 617, 1991 WL 16811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alvarez-v-state-texapp-1991.