Carson v. State
This text of 6 S.W.3d 536 (Carson 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.
Opinions
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court,
The question presented is whether the Fourth Court of Appeals erred in remanding this case to the trial court with instructions that a new punishment hearing be held. We hold that the Court of Appeals did err.
The Relevant Facts
A Bexar County jury found appellant, Terrance D. Carson, guilty of murder under Texas Penal Code § 19.02(b) and assessed his punishment at imprisonment for fifty years. On appeal, appellant argued that the trial court reversibly erred during voir dire in not allowing him to ask Venireman Molina whether she could consider recommending probation in a murder case not involving a mercy killing. The Fourth Court of Appeals agreed with appellant that the trial court erred, and it further agreed that the error was not harmless. Carson v. State, 986 S.W.2d 24, 29 (Tex.App. — San Antonio 1998). The Court of Appeals then affirmed the trial court’s judgment with respect to appellant’s conviction, vacated the trial court’s judgment with respect to his sentence, and remanded the case for a new punishment hearing. Ibid. The court, citing Article 44.29(b)1 of [538]*538the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure2 and our decision in Ransom v. State, 920 S.W.2d 288 (Tex.Crim.App.1994), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1030, 117 S.Ct. 587, 136 L.Ed.2d 516 (1996),3 reasoned that appellant was not entitled to an entirely new trial because (1) the trial court’s error was one “affecting punishment only” and (2) appellant offered neither evidence nor argument “suggesting the trial court’s erroneous restriction of his voir dire resulted in a jury biased against him on the issue of guilt.” Ibid. We granted appellant’s petition for discretionary review to determine whether the Court of Appeals erred in remanding the case for a new punishment hearing only.4
Before this Court, appellant argues that the Court of Appeals erred in relying on Article 44.29(b) because that statutory provision, by its plain terms, authorizes a new punishment hearing only for errors made in the punishment stage of the trial. Appellant points out that the trial court’s error here, made during voir dire, was not made in the punishment stage of the trial. Finally, appellant argues that the Court of Appeals erred in relying on our decision in Ransom v. State, 920 S.W.2d 288, because that was a capital murder case in which we applied Article 44.29(c), not Article 44.29(b).
In response, the State argues that voir dire is not part of the guilt/innocence stage of trial or the punishment stage of trial and that, therefore, Article 44.29 does not address the appropriate remedy for voir dire errors. The State argues further that appellate courts have inherent power to fashion appropriate remedies for the due administration of justice and that the appropriate remedy in this case is remand for a new punishment hearing only.
Analysis
Before the enactment of Article 44.29(b) in 1987, our law required that an entirely new trial be held on remand in non-capital cases if an appellate court determined that reversible error occurred at any point in the trial (including voir dire) and the jury had assessed punishment. Bullard v. State, 548 S.W.2d 13, 18 (Tex. [539]*539Crim.App.1977). That was so because Article 37.07, §§ 2(b) and 3(c), required that the same jury both determine guilt and assess punishment. Ellison v. State, 432 S.W.2d 955, 957 (Tex.Crim.App.1968). Article 44.29(b) made a single exception to that rule. Under Article 44.29(b), retrial limited to assessment of punishment is permitted in non-capital cases if (1) an appellate court determines that reversible error occurred and (2) the error was, in the language of the statute, “made in the punishment stage of the trial.”
The error in the instant case occurred during voir dire. Thus, under Article 37.07, appellant is entitled to an entirely new trial unless the error was “made in the punishment stage of the trial” within the meaning of Article 44.29(b).
Under our decision in Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782, 787 (Tex.Crim.App.1991), we must interpret unambiguous statutes literally, unless doing so would lead to absurd results. The statutory phrase “made in the punishment stage of the trial” is unambiguous, and we cannot say that interpreting it literally would lead to absurd results. Therefore, we hold that Article 44.29(b) permits retrials limited to assessment of punishment only for errors that were, literally, made in the punishment stage of the trial. Voir dire errors are not in that category.
In view of the preceding, it is clear that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that Article 44.29(b) allowed a retrial in this case limited to assessment of punishment. The root of the Court of Appeals’ error was its rebanee upon our decision in Ransom v. State, 920 S.W.2d 288. Our decision in that capital case,5 however, was based on Article 44.29(c), not Article 44.29(b). The two statutory provisions are worded quite differently and apply to different types of cases.6
We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the trial court for a new trial.
Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI
Related
Cite This Page — Counsel Stack
6 S.W.3d 536, 1999 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 133, 1999 WL 1076745, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carson-v-state-texcrimapp-1999.