Brown v. State

907 S.W.2d 835, 1995 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 89, 1995 WL 539206
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 13, 1995
Docket1583-92
StatusPublished
Cited by90 cases

This text of 907 S.W.2d 835 (Brown v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. State, 907 S.W.2d 835, 1995 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 89, 1995 WL 539206 (Tex. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION ON APPELLANTS PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

BAIRD, Judge.

Appellant’s trial ended when the trial judge sua sponte déclared a mistrial over appellant’s objection. Shortly before the second trial, appellant filed an application for writ of habeas corpus claiming retrial would violate the Constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. U.S. Const., art. V. The habeas judge denied relief and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Ex parte Brown, 839 S.W.2d 164 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1992). We granted appellant’s petition for discretionary review to determine an important question of state or federal law which has not been, but should be, settled by this Court. [837]*837Tex.R.App.P. 200(c)(2).1 We will grant relief.

I.

On Monday, March 30, 1992, appellant’s case was called for trial and a jury was impaneled and sworn. Due to the lateness of the hour, the trial was continued until the following day. But, on Tuesday, March 31st, appellant’s counsel became ill and the trial was continued until, Wednesday, April 1, 1992. Prior to the continuance, however, appellant informed the trial judge that defense witness, Lorna Beasley, a Department of Public Safety chemist, would be unavailable from April 2nd through the 20th.2 In resolving the problem of Beasley’s unavailability, the following conversation ensued between the trial judge and the parties:

The Court: Well, let me state this. Now, is this going to be your witness, [appellant’s counsel], the one you are talking about?
Appellant: I have subpoenaed her, Your Honor, and had her served.
The State: I anticipate also placing her in my case in chief, Your Honor.
The Court: Well, see, we won’t be getting started until Wednesday. Somebody may not be able to release her once we get started — well, anyway, that’s neithei-here nor there.
Is there any possibility of us going ahead and starting tomorrow assuming [appellant’s counsel] is — is well enough to proceed, getting as much evidence as we have on or can get on, and then recessing it at that point and coming back Monday?
The State: That’s agreeable, Your Honor.
The Court: Would that be agreeable, [appellant’s counsel]?
Appellant: Yes, Your Honor.

The trial judge then ruled that the State would begin to present its evidence April 1st. Both sides agreed and announced ready.

On Wednesday, April 1st, the State announced it was not ready to proceed. The State claimed that although Beasley was presumably able to testify on April 1st, the State’s ability to proceed had been “gutted or prejudiced” by the one-day delay caused by the illness of appellant’s counsel. The prosecutor further contended that, although she was prepared to file a motion for continuance, she had decided against doing so, stating, “I think that gives too much time for something to happen to this jury; illnesses or weddings or vacation or whatever. Or it gives too much time for things to — to go [838]*838wrong.” The trial judge then raised the subject of manifest necessity:

The Court: All right. So let me ask you this. Is the State indicating to the — to the Court that there's a manifest necessity that the Court grant a mistrial in this?
The State: I think the Court has the authority to do it, and I think this situation — these facts fall within the Court’s discretion under that standard, yes, sir.
The Court: So it’s the State’s position— one further question — that the Court would be justified in doing that?
The State: I think the Court would be justified. I want the record to be very clear that the State is not urging the mistrial, but we support the Court’s position that the Court may do so.3

When the prosecutor represented that defense witness Beasley’s testimony was vital to the State’s case, appellant offered to allow Beasley to testify out of sequence, or, in the alternative, to allow Beasley’s supervisor, Manuel Valadez, to testify in Beasley’s stead. The prosecutor opposed each alternative, contending that allowing Beasley to testify out of sequence was unacceptable because it “would require us to trust [appellant’s counsel] when he says he will allow that[.]” The prosecutor further contended that allowing Valadez to testify instead of Beasley

... would require the defense not to object if we called Manuel Valadez. I don’t trust [appellant’s counsel]. I don’t trust him to stand before the Court and say he’s not going to object and get in the middle of the trial and then object. I just want — don’t want to place any amount of trust in his representation to the State that he won’t do that so that’s not an alternative.

Declining to either proceed with the trial or continue the trial, the trial judge declared a mistrial on the grounds of manifest necessity over appellant’s objection.

Appellant’s case was re-scheduled for trial on May 11, 1992. Before the second trial, appellant filed an application for Writ of Ha-beas Corpus contending his right against double jeopardy would be violated by the second trial. The habeas judge denied relief and appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals.

II.

In affirming the denial of relief, the Court of Appeals held the complications facing the trial judge amounted to a “ ‘high degree’ of ‘necessity’ for declaring a mistrial.” Brown, 839 S.W.2d at 167 (citing Arizona v. Washington, 434 U.S. 497, 506, 98 S.Ct. 824, 831, 54 L.Ed.2d 717 (1978)). The Court of Appeals further held the trial judge considered “less drastic alternatives” before granting the mistrial:

... [The record] shows that [the trial judge] expressly considered less drastic alternatives to a mistrial and he gave adequate consideration to Brown’s double jeopardy right ... Although we are without authoritative guidance on what constitutes a “less drastic alternative” under the circumstances facing this trial judge, he considered the only other alternatives that come to our mind. The trial judge did not abruptly discharge the jury but rather considered his other alternatives, including a continuance... .4

Brown, 839 S.W.2d at 167.

We granted review to determine an important question of state or federal law which has not been, but should be, settled by our Court. Tex.R.App.P. 200(c)(2). See, n. 1, supra.

III.

A.

• The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a State from twice putting a defendant in jeopardy for the same offense. Arizona v. Washington, 434 U.S. 497, 503, 98 S.Ct. 824, 829 (1978); Ex parte Little, 887 S.W.2d 62, 64 (Tex.Cr.App.1994); Alvarez v. State, 864 S.W.2d 64, 65 [839]*839(Tex.Cr.App.1993); and, Harrison v. State,

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Bluebook (online)
907 S.W.2d 835, 1995 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 89, 1995 WL 539206, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-texcrimapp-1995.