Holland v. State

820 S.W.2d 221, 1991 WL 250879
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 8, 1992
Docket2-89-252-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 820 S.W.2d 221 (Holland 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
Holland v. State, 820 S.W.2d 221, 1991 WL 250879 (Tex. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinions

OPINION

DAY, Justice.

James Hershel Holland appeals his conviction for the offense of driving while intoxicated. See TEX.REV.CIV.STAT. ANN. art. 6701Z-l(b) (Vernon 1989). We affirm.

The issue in this case is whether an extraneous offense is admissible for jury consideration in assessing punishment and recommending probation when a defendant applies for probation, pleads not guilty but is found guilty, and then testifies in support of his application.

Holland was charged, tried, and convicted of the offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI). At a hearing outside the presence of the jury, the State sought to introduce evidence of Holland’s past alcohol-related offenses. Specifically, the State offered three exhibits. The first contained certified copies of documents from the previous DWI, including the criminal docket sheet, the information, complaint, and a motion to dismiss. The second exhibit contained records from the same Parker County court which included the complaint, information, criminal docket sheet, and plea of guilty indicating that Holland had been charged and convicted of the offense of reckless driving. Apparently, the DWI charge was dismissed upon Holland’s plea of guilty to the offense of reckless driving. The first State’s exhibit reflected that Holland’s blood alcohol concentration at the time of his prior arrest was .12.

During final argument at the punishment phase in the instant case, the State repeatedly argued that Holland should not be granted probation since his driving history demonstrated a repeated involvement with alcohol. This argument was based upon the State’s three exhibits which showed that Holland’s previous reckless driving conviction was the result of a plea bargained “reduction” of the driving while intoxicated charge. The State’s exhibits were admitted over Holland’s objections. The jury subsequently rejected Holland’s application for probation.

In his first point of error, Holland contends the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the State’s exhibits evidencing the previous charge of DWI. The State insists that section 3 of article 37.07 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, which was amended by the legislature in 1989, governs the admissibility of extraneous unad-judicated offenses during the punishment phase of the trial.1 The Code provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

(a) Regardless of the plea and whether the punishment be assessed by the judge or the jury, evidence may, as permitted by the Rules of Evidence, be offered by the state and the defendant as to any matter the court deems relevant to sen[223]*223tencing, including the prior criminal record of the defendant, his general reputation and his character. The term pri- or criminal record means a final conviction in a court of record, or a probated or suspended sentence that has occurred prior to trial, or any final conviction material to the offense charged.

TEX.C0DE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art. 37.07 § 8(a) (Vernon Supp.1991) (emphasis added).

State’s exhibit number two, the subject of this point of error, contained certified copies of five documents from a case in which Holland was previously charged with, and convicted for, the offense of reckless driving: a criminal docket sheet; a criminal information; a complaint; a bond; and a motion to dismiss. The State contends that this evidence is relevant to Holland’s application for probation and therefore admissible. We agree.

The Court of Criminal Appeals has departed from long-standing precedent to hold that specific instances of conduct, even when offered as relevant to a defendant’s application for probation, are inadmissible. Murphy v. State, 777 S.W.2d 44 (Tex.Crim.App.1988). The Murphy court categorically held that:

[Wjhether past criminal conduct by an applicant for probation may reveal a trait or propensity to violate the law is not relevant to a material issue tendered by an application for probation in a punishment proceeding before a jury.

Id. at 67 (emphasis added). Under the law as announced in Murphy, Holland’s allegation as to the inadmissibility of evidence of his DWI charge and subsequent conviction for reckless driving would be valid. However, our analysis of Murphy is not disposi-tive of the case at bar. The 1989 amendment of article 37.07 and the interpretive decisions of other courts lead us to the conclusion that Holland’s claim must fail.

The Beaumont Court of Appeals recently applied the amended language of section 3(a) of article 37.07, and held that the revised statute overruled Murphy as to this specific issue:

We hold that the language that evidence may, as permitted by the Rules of Evidence, be offered by the State and the defendant as to any matter the court deems relevant to sentencing is additional to and separate and independent of the “prior criminal record of the defendant.” This relevant evidence is also independent of and separate from evidence of the defendant’s general reputation and his character. TEX.R.CRIM.EVID. 401 defines relevant evidence: the evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. We note that the language used is “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action.” Part of the determination of the action, of course, was the assessment of punishment.
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As an additional and separate, distinct basis of our overruling point of error one, we note that the legislature has provided that any matter that the court deems relevant to sentencing is admissible.

Huggins v. State, 795 S.W.2d 909, 911 (Tex.App.—Beaumont 1990, pet. ref’d) (emphasis added). We agree with the Beaumont court that the amendment to Article 37.07 overrules Murphy. Hubbard v. State, 809 S.W.2d 316 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1991, no pet. h.). We believe Holland’s prior offense had significant value in the jury’s determination of his capability not to violate laws. In addition, we maintain that a jury, “[i]n [its] determination of the appropriateness of probation, [is] entitled to know the defendant’s criminal history, just as the judge is provided in a pre-sentence report when he considers the same.” Murphy, 111 S.W.2d at 53 (White, J. dissenting). The defendant’s “rehabilitative potential, likelihood of recidivism, danger to the community, and suitability to a probationary environment” is relevant in light of the fact that “[probation is considered a privilege, not a punishment....” Murphy, 777 S.W.2d at 51 (White, J., dis[224]*224senting). We too are hesitant to deprive the jury of admissible and probative evidence with which it could assess a fair and appropriate sentence.

Furthermore, the new version of article 37.07 uses virtually the same language found in article 37.071(a) which governs the admissibility of evidence in the punishment phase of a capital trial. As such, the same standard of admissibility should apply. See Gentry v. State,

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Bluebook (online)
820 S.W.2d 221, 1991 WL 250879, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holland-v-state-texapp-1992.