Frank v. State

558 S.W.2d 12, 1977 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1293
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 23, 1977
Docket53800
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 558 S.W.2d 12 (Frank 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
Frank v. State, 558 S.W.2d 12, 1977 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1293 (Tex. 1977).

Opinion

OPINION

DALLY, Commissioner.

This is an appeal from a conviction for the offense of aggravated robbery; punishment is imprisonment for 8 years.

Appellant complains of the indictment, of the court’s charge, and of the refusal of the court to grant a new trial.

Appellant contends that the court erred in refusing to grant a new trial because the prosecutor did not disclose to the appellant or his counsel evidence obtained during trial which it is alleged was exculpatory. Evidence adduced at the hearing on appellant’s amended motion for new trial showed that Steve Stone, an eyewitness to the robbery, was brought into the courtroom during the trial and was unable to positively identify appellant. The prosecutor did not call Stone to testify and did not inform appellant of Stone’s failure to identify appellant. We conclude that the prosecution’s failure to do so did not constitute reversible error.

Appellant relies on Crutcher v. State, 481 S.W.2d 113 (Tex.Cr.App. 1972), and Ridyolph v. State, 503 S.W.2d 276 (Tex.Cr. App. 1974), as requiring the prosecutor to disclose the information in the instant case. In each of those cases, unlike this case, a motion was made by the defendant for the prosecution to disclose exculpatory evidence. In Crutcher, the conviction was reversed because the prosecutor did not disclose the fact that the complaining witness previously had given a description which conflicted with her identification of the defendant. In Ridyolph, the conviction was reversed because the prosecution failed to disclose the identity of a witness who would have testified unequivocally and favorably to the defendant regarding a hotly disputed, material issue. The facts of the instant case and the type of information which appellant claims was not disclosed are distinguishable from the facts of those cases.

Although not cited either by appellant or by the State, the more recent case of United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976), gives the guidelines by which we may reach our decision. In that case the defendant urged that the trial court erred in failing to grant a new trial because the prosecution failed to disclose that the deceased had a prior criminal record which indicated his violent character, and that information was material to the defendant’s claim of self-defense in a murder case. In reversing the Court of Appeals and affirming the decision of the trial court, the Supreme Court analyzed the issue as follows:

“The question before us is whether the prosecutor’s failure to provide defense counsel with certain background informa *14 tion about Sewell, which would have tended to support the argument that respondent acted in self-defense, deprived her of a fair trial under the rule of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194,10 L.Ed.2d 215.
“The answer to the question depends on (1) a review of the facts, (2) the significance of the failure of defense counsel to request the material, and (3) the standard by which the prosecution’s failure to volunteer exculpatory material should be judged.”

The court went on to say that in cases such as the instant ease, in which no specific request for exculpatory material is made,

“. . . [T]he prosecutor will not have violated his constitutional duty of disclosure unless his omission is of sufficient significance to result in the denial of the defendant’s right to a fair trial.
“The Court of Appeals appears to have assumed that the prosecutor has a constitutional obligation to disclose any information that might affect the jury’s verdict. That statement of a constitutional standard of materiality approaches the ‘sporting theory of justice’ which the Court expressly rejected in Brady. For a jury’s appraisal of a case ‘might’ be affected by an improper or trivial consideration as well as by evidence giving rise to a legitimate doubt on the issue of guilt. If everything that might influence a jury must be disclosed, the only way a prosecutor could discharge his constitutional duty would be to allow complete discovery of his files as a matter of routine practice.” (Footnote omitted.)

A review of the entire trial is necessary to determine whether the prosecution’s failure to disclose information deprived the defendant of a fair trial.

“. . . [I]f the omitted evidence creates a reasonable doubt that did not otherwise exist, constitutional error has been committed. This means that the omission must be evaluated in the context of the entire record. If there is no reasonable doubt about guilt whether or not the additional evidence is considered, there is no justification for a new trial. On the other hand, if the verdict is already of questionable validity, additional evidence of relatively minor importance might be sufficient to create a reasonable doubt.”

United States v. Agurs, 96 S.Ct. at 2401-02.

Applying the above test to the facts of the case at bar, we cannot say that the prosecution’s failure to disclose to appellant that Stone failed to identify him would have created a reasonable doubt about appellant’s guilt. In the instant case, not only did appellant not make a specific request that exculpatory material be disclosed, but the record does not show that the evidence which was withheld from appellant was material under United States v. Agurs, supra. Three eyewitnesses to the robbery, including the complaining witness, identified appellant as carrying a sub-machine gun and being one of a group of five people who participated in the robbery. Other eyewitnesses stated that appellant was not the man in question. At the hearing on the motion for new trial, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case testified that Stone would have been unable to testify one way or the other as to whether appellant was one of the robbers. Stone testified at the hearing that he was unable to state positively that appellant either was or was not.one of the robbers. Stone also testified that he was in the presence of the man identified by others as appellant for about five minutes, the great part of which he spent either with his back to the man or lying on the floor. He also testified that all he remembered of the man was that he was wearing a long red coat and carrying a sub-machine gun. Since the complaining witness while testifying referred several times to Stone as being present during the robbery, appellant is in no position to contend that he was unaware that Stone had been an eyewitness to the robbery. Given that there were both eyewitnesses who identified appellant and others who stated that appellant was not one of the five robbers, we do not see, viewing the record in its entirety, how Stone’s equivocal testimony would have cast a reasonable doubt upon *15 appellant’s guilt.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pena v. State
226 S.W.3d 634 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Luvano v. State
183 S.W.3d 918 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006)
Shad Edward Luvano v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 2000
Butler v. State
736 S.W.2d 664 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1987)
Dickens v. Court of Appeals for the Second Supreme Judicial District of Texas
727 S.W.2d 542 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1987)
Showery v. State
690 S.W.2d 689 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Reynolds v. Dickens
685 S.W.2d 479 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Selvage v. State
680 S.W.2d 17 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Kee v. State
666 S.W.2d 199 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Hawkins v. State
660 S.W.2d 65 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Calamaco v. State
650 S.W.2d 913 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Chavez v. State
623 S.W.2d 467 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Turpin v. State
606 S.W.2d 907 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Iness v. State
606 S.W.2d 306 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Sattiewhite v. State
600 S.W.2d 277 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Quinones v. State
592 S.W.2d 933 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Adams v. State
577 S.W.2d 717 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
558 S.W.2d 12, 1977 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frank-v-state-texcrimapp-1977.