First v. State

846 S.W.2d 836, 1992 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 241, 1992 WL 366989
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 16, 1992
Docket69832
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 846 S.W.2d 836 (First 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
First v. State, 846 S.W.2d 836, 1992 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 241, 1992 WL 366989 (Tex. 1992).

Opinions

OPINION

BAIRD, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder. Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(6)(A). The jury affirmatively answered the three issues submitted pursuant to Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071(b) and appellant was sentenced to death. Tex.Code Crim. Proc.Ann. art. 37.071(e). Appeal to this Court is automatic. Tex.Code Crim.Proc. Ann. art. 37.071(h). Appellant raises thirteen points of error. We will reverse.

I.

The facts of this case are not in dispute.1 On May 30, 1986, the complainants, Luke Davis and Kimberly Holley, spent several hours at a Lubbock tavern.2 Later in the evening, appellant and Pierce Horton arrived at the tavern and began playing pool with Davis and Holley.' At approximately 1:00 a.m. appellant, Horton, Davis, and Holley left the bar together. While in the parking lot, Davis and Holley assaulted appellant and Horton. Davis overpowered appellant and repeatedly slammed appellant’s head into the sidewalk and into the bumper of a parked automobile. Testimony as to the number of times appellant’s head hit the car and sidewalk differed, but various witnesses agreed that Davis was in control of the fight.3 During the fight, [838]*838Holley produced a knife and held Horton at bay by threatening to “cut [Horton’s] goddamned guts out” if Horton attempted to assist appellant. Upon learning of the fight, the bar’s doorman went outside and told the four to leave. When the fight between appellant and Davis ended, appellant retrieved a revolver from Horton’s automobile. Appellant fired at and hit a passing vehicle. Davis and Holley attempted to escape in Holley’s car. Appellant fatally shot Davis as Davis sat in the passenger seat of the car. Holley, standing on the driver’s side, turned and attempted to flee. Appellant fired a fatal shot into the back of Holley. Moments later, police officers arrested Horton and appellant.

II.

In points of error one and two, appellant contends the capital sentencing scheme provided by Tex.Code Crim.Proc. Ann. art. 37.071 as applied to him is unconstitutional. Specifically, appellant contends that the interaction between Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(6)(A) and Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071(f) deprived the jury of a vehicle, namely the issue provided by Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.-071(b)(3), to give effect to the provocation on the part of Davis.4 For the following reasons, we sustain appellant’s points of error one and two.

Appellant’s indictment alleged the offense of capital murder, pursuant to § 19.-03(a)(6)(A), as follows:

... KENNETH WAYNE FIRST hereafter styled the Defendant, heretofore on or about the 30TH DAY OF MAY, 1986, did then and there intentionally and knowingly murder more than one person during the same criminal transaction, to-wit: the said KENNETH WAYNE FIRST did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, Kimberly Sue Holley, by shooting the said Kimberly Sue Holley with a handgun, and the said KENNETH WAYNE FIRST did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, J. Luke Davis, by shooting the said J. Luke Davis with a handgun[.]5

Art. 37.071(f) provides:

If a defendant is convicted of an offense under section 19.03(a)(6), Penal Code, the court shall submit the three issues under Subsection (b) of this article only with regard to the conduct of the defendant in murdering the deceased individual first named in the indictment.6

Prior to its submission to the jury, appellant objected to the proposed third issue as follows:

Your honor, we would like to also make the alternative objection that, and we are doing this for purposes of the [839]*839record, that the statute as presented in article 37.07(1)(F) [sic] is unconstitutional on its face as applied to a capital murder conviction with multiple victims, in that it does not require the jury to make a specific determination as to each victim for each special issue. In that regard we would submit that the special issues should be presented in an alternate form. * * * * * *
We submit, that [the third punishment issue] should be submitted to the jury as, “Do you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct of the defendant in killing Kimberly Sue Holley was unreasonable in response to the provocation, if any, by Kimberly Sue Holley.” And then the answer forms. And then special issue 3-B, “Do you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct of the defendant in killing J. Luke Davis was unreasonable in response to provocation, if any, by J. Luke Davis?
We feel that based on facts of this particular case and as applied to this individual defendant, that that’s the only logical and constitutional way to present these special issues in a case of this magnitude. We would object to the form of the charge in that the special issues are not presented in a constitutional manner.

Prior to overruling appellant’s requested issue the following exchange occurred:

[THE COURT] ... With regard to the denial — or the issue of the statute itself being unconstitutional, the Court will overrule the objection with regard to the constitutionality of the statute.
The Court over the evening had some time to deliberate and think about this particular statute and although I do not agree with the fact that it should be submitted only as to the individual first named or the deceased individual first named in the indictment, [but,] after doing a little bit of wresting with my own conscience with regard to the thing, that’s the way the law says to present it. And although I do not agree that is the manner in which it ought to the [sic, be] submitted, based on the facts of this particular case, after some deliberation and the oath that I took when I took this office, I think I’m going to follow what the law is. I don’t agree with it but I will follow what it is.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL] ... Also, this abridges his [appellant’s] rights in that it would function as a cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, in that a full, fair determination under the law is not allowed as the special issues are to be presented, and this would function to favor the imposition of the death penalty, and therefore function as a cruel and unusual punishment to this defendant.
[THE COURT] The Court will overrule the objections to the act on its constitutional grounds.
The Court will rule that the act is constitutional and will allow the submission under the law as required in 37.-071(f), as regards special issue number one and special issue number three.

Accordingly, the punishment charge followed art. 37.071(f) and applied only the first named deceased in the indictment, Holley, to the third issue:

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First v. State
846 S.W.2d 836 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
846 S.W.2d 836, 1992 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 241, 1992 WL 366989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-v-state-texcrimapp-1992.