Barnes v. State

855 S.W.2d 173, 1993 WL 175214
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 22, 1993·No. A14-92-01021-CR·Published·Cited by 43 cases

Opinion

OPINION

LEE, Justice.

Appellant was charged with the April 1, 1992, armed robbery of two Union Pacific Railroad employees. Appellant entered a plea of not guilty. The jury convicted appellant, and following his plea of true to two enhancement paragraphs, assessed punishment at sixty years confinement. *174 By three points of error, appellant claims the trial court erred in overruling his objections to the State’s use of its peremptory challenges, and in instructing the jury that it had a duty to determine appellant’s guilt or innocence. We affirm.

In his first two points of error, appellant raises a Batson 1 challenge. In passing upon the Batson challenge, we review the evidence adduced at the Batson hearing in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling. Williams v. State, 804 S.W.2d 95 (Tex.Crim.App.1991), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 2875, 115 L.Ed.2d 1038 (1991). We will not overturn a trial judge’s finding that the State exercised its strike(s) in a race neutral manner unless such ruling is clearly erroneous. Whitsey v. State, 796 S.W.2d 707, 720-23 (Tex.Crim.App.1989) (opinion on reh’g); Williams v. State, 804 S.W.2d at 101.

After both sides made their jury strikes, but before the jury was sworn, appellant objected to the State’s use of its peremptory challenges to exclude juror nos. six and thirteen. Appellant requested the court to take judicial notice that the defendant was black and the two complainants were white. The trial court held a hearing to determine the State’s reasons for striking veniremen six and thirteen. The prosecutor explained that he struck prospective juror no. six because he completed his juror information form incorrectly, by misspelling Baptist as “Bathis” indicating a lack of intelligence. In addition, the juror was employed as a stocker, an occupation of juror with which the prosecutor has had little success in the past. The prosecutor then explained that he struck juror no. thirteen because she appeared bored throughout the voir dire process, and because of her young age. The trial court found these to be race neutral reasons, and overruled appellant’s motion.

Appellant’s claim is that the trial court erred by permitting the State to exclude two black veniremen from the jury. Appellant argues that the racially neutral reasons offered by the State to explain its strikes were mere pretext, because several non-black veniremen possessing the same qualities were not stricken.

As recently noted by the Court of Criminal Appeals, “disparate treatment” cannot automatically be imputed in every situation where one of the State’s bases for striking a venireperson would technically apply to another venireperson whom the State found acceptable. Cantu v. State, 842 S.W.2d 667, 689 (Tex.Crim.App.1992). The State’s use of its peremptory challenges is not subject to rigid quantification. Id. Potential jurors may possess the same objectionable characteristics, yet in varying degrees. Id. The fact that jurors remaining on the panel possess one or more of the same characteristics as a juror that was stricken, does not establish disparate treatment. Id.

Young age constitutes a race-neutral explanation for the exercise of a peremptory strike. Dutton v. State, 836 S.W.2d 221, 225 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1992, no pet.). The State may also strike a prospective juror who appears inattentive during the voir dire process. See Gambel v. State, 835 S.W.2d 788, 790 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1992, no pet.); Solomon v. State, 830 S.W.2d 636, 637 (Tex.App.—Texarkana 1992, pet. ref’d). Where the prosecutor indicates that he has struck a prospective juror based on that juror’s type of employment and that the prosecutor has had poor success with that type of worker, the reason is a race neutral explanation for exercising a peremptory strike. Tompkins v. State, 774 S.W.2d 195, 205 (Tex.Crim.App.1987). Finally, it is a racially neutral reason to strike a prospective juror where the juror makes mistakes on his juror information card. Chambers v. State, 724 S.W.2d 440, 442 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1987, pet. ref’d) (where prospective juror misspelled “Baptist” on his juror information card); Tompkins v. State, 774 S.W.2d at 204-05 (where prosecutor had legitimate race neutral reason for striking a veniremember with poor literacy skills).

*175 After considering the evidence in a light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, we find that its judgment was not clearly erroneous. Appellant’s first and second points are overruled.

In his final point of error, appellant claims the trial court gave an erroneous instruction when it told the jurors that their “sole duty at this time is to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant under the indictment in this cause and restrict [their] deliberations solely to the issue of guilt or innocence of the defendant.” Appellant concedes that there was no objection to this point in the trial court, however, on appeal he argues that this instruction was not only an incorrect statement of the law, but also conflicted with the instruction on reasonable doubt. We do not agree.

To preserve error for appellate review, a party must timely object, stating the specific grounds for objecting unless the grounds are apparent from the context. Tex.R.App.P. 52(a). Without a proper objection to the jury charge at trial, we reverse only if the defendant suffered egregious harm. Michel v. State, 834 S.W.2d 64, 68 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1992, no pet.); Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 171 (Tex.Crim.App.1985) (op. on reh’g). That is, the defendant must claim that the error was so egregious and created such harm that he “has not had a fair and impartial trial.” Almanza, 686 S.W.2d at 171. We review the alleged error in the charge by looking to the entire charge, the state of the evidence, the argument of counsel and any other relevant information contained in the record. Almanza, 686 S.W.2d at 171; United States v. Fotovich, 885 F.2d 241 (5th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1034, 110 S.Ct. 754, 107 L.Ed.2d 770 (1989).

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Barnes v. State, 855 S.W.2d 173, 1993 WL 175214 (Tex. Ct. App. 1993).

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