Chandler v. State

744 S.W.2d 341, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 304, 1988 WL 10799
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 13, 1988
Docket3-85-165-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 744 S.W.2d 341 (Chandler 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
Chandler v. State, 744 S.W.2d 341, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 304, 1988 WL 10799 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

CARROLL, Justice.

BACKGROUND

A jury found appellant Donathon Chandler guilty of intentional murder in the shooting death of Jonathan Slaughter and assessed punishment at 30 years’ imprisonment. He brings six points of error, which we will group and discuss by issue. We will affirm the judgment of conviction.

DISCUSSION

1. Right of Witness Not to Testify

Appellant’s primary point of error is that the trial court erred in permitting a defense witness to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. During the trial, appellant’s attorney called Tim Felder as a defense witness. Felder had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in connection with the same incident. A hearing was held outside the presence of the jury and Felder refused (after giving his name) to answer any questions, invoking his right to refuse to testify under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The trial court permitted the refusal.

Appellant claims that Felder’s testimony could not have placed him in criminal jeopardy because he had already pleaded guilty to, and been sentenced for, participation in the only crime for which his testimony could incriminate him. The State responds that the witness could reasonably have believed that his testimony could indeed have led to further prosecution. We agree.

Grayson v. State, 684 S.W.2d 691 (Tex.Cr.App.1984) holds that a defendant’s right to compulsory process (i.e., to call a witness in his favor) must yield to an individual’s privilege against self-incrimination. If the privilege did apply here, then the trial court was correct in permitting Felder to refuse to testify.

Whenever a witness “takes the Fifth,” to determine whether the privilege applies, the court must decide whether the questions propounded “present a reasonable danger of further crimination in light of all the circumstances, including previous disclosures.” C. McCormick, McCormick on Evidence, § 140 at 346 (3rd ed. 1984). See also Hoffman v. U.S., 341 U.S. 479, 71 S.Ct. 814, 95 L.Ed. 1118 (1951). If so, the defendant may not call as a witness a code-fendant who has indicated that he will assert his privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. U.S. v. Roberts, 503 F.2d 598 (9th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1113, 95 S.Ct. 791, 42 L.Ed.2d 811 (1975); Whitmore v. State, 570 S.W.2d 889 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). The privilege extends to any testimony the witness may reasonably believe could lead to criminal prosecution. Greene v. State, 537 S.W. 2d 100, 103 (Tex.Civ.App.1976, no writ).

The question we must answer, then, is this: could Felder have reasonably believed that responding to questions about the incident presented such a danger? We think so. The trial judge in the Chandler case still retained jurisdiction over Felder’s case, in which Felder had pleaded guilty to *343 aggravated assault in the same incident. While double jeopardy considerations would prohibit alteration of the sentence imposed pursuant to the plea bargain, the possibility of prosecution for perjury still existed. If the trial court had compelled Felder to testify in Chandler’s trial, and his testimony contradicted any testimony he gave in his own judicial confession, then he would be subject to being charged with and tried for perjury. Tex.Pen.Code Ann. §§ 37.02, 37.03, 37.04, 37.06 (Supp.1987).

Appellant cites Washington v. State, 388 U.S. 14, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967), for the proposition that prohibiting a codefendant (who had already been convicted of an offense arising out of the same transaction) from testifying for a defendant was reversible error. However, that case is factually unlike this one, because in Washington, a statute prevented the code-fendant from testifying, even though he wanted to. Here, the witness chose not to testify.

We recognize that there is authority for the proposition that, once a witness has pleaded guilty to, or been convicted of, the offense for which his testimony might incriminate him, he should not be permitted to claim the Fifth Amendment privilege. Franco v. State, 491 S.W.2d 890 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Cherb v. State, 472 S.W.2d 273 (Tex.Cr.App.1971). However, those cases are distinguishable from the present one because the holdings in them hinged on the fact that no further prosecution was alleged to be possible. There was no possibility of perjury alleged, as is true in the instant case.

We hold that Felder relied on the Fifth Amendment in the reasonable belief that if he did not, he would be subject to further punishment. Therefore, the trial judge’s decision to permit him to refuse to testify in the Chandler case was proper.

2. Jury Selection

In two points of error, appellant challenges the method by which the jury panel was selected and the exclusion of Black venirepersons from the jury. As to the panel selection, appellant alleges that the court’s use of voter registration records is unrepresentative of the community, and that, therefore, the jury panel chosen on that basis deprived appellant of due process. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has already held in Granviel v. State, 552 S.W.2d 107 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), ce rt. denied, 431 U.S. 933, 97 S.Ct. 2642, 53 L.Ed.2d 250 (1977) that using county voter registration lists as the basis for juror selection does not deprive defendants of due process or equal protection of the laws.

The other jury selection issue is more difficult. Appellant, citing the watershed decision in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), claims error in the State’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude two Black jurors from the jury panel. We disagree.

Before analyzing the discrimination argument on the merits, however, we must consider whether appellant preserved error on the point. In Henry v. State, 729 S.W. 2d 732 (Tex.Cr.App.1987), the Court of Criminal Appeals held that, for a Batson- type objection to be timely, it must be made “after the composition of the jury is known, but before the jury is sworn and the venire panel is discharged. It is at this time that the trial court has a number of options to correct any error discovered in a Batson hearing_” (emphasis in original).

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Bluebook (online)
744 S.W.2d 341, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 304, 1988 WL 10799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chandler-v-state-texapp-1988.