Leon Willis Wilkerson v. State of Texas

391 S.W.3d 190, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8312, 2012 WL 4682762
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided October 4, 2012·No. 11-10-00315-CR·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

OPINION

JIM R. WRIGHT, Chief Justice.

The jury convicted Leon Willis Wilkerson, appellant, of the offense of robbery and, upon appellant’s pleas of true to the enhancement allegations, assessed his punishment at confinement for ninety-nine years. We modify and affirm in part, and we reverse and remand in part.

Appellant presents five issues for review. In the first issue, he contends that the trial court abused its discretion by prohibiting his trial counsel from asking questions at voir dire regarding comparative standards of proof. In the second issue, he asserts that, alternatively, his trial counsel was prevented from rendering effective assistance of counsel based upon the voir dire restriction addressed in appellant’s first issue. In his third issue, appellant contends that the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury on the lesser included offense of theft. In the fourth issue, appellant complains of the assessment of court-appointed attorney’s fees and court-appointed investigator’s fees as court costs in the judgment. In his final issue, appellant contends that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on the range of punishment.

Initially, we note that the State has asserted in its brief that appellant has waived “all error in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial” under the DeGarmo doctrine. See DeGarmo v. State, 691 S.W.2d 657 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). We disagree. In DeGarmo, the court stated that, when a defendant testifies at the punishment stage of trial and admits his guilt, he “not only waives a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, but he also waives any error that might have occurred during the guilt stage of the trial.” Id. at 661. The DeGarmo doctrine was reconsidered and largely disavowed by the Court of Criminal Appeals in Leday v. State, 983 S.W.2d 713 (Tex.Crim.App.1998). See Reyes v. State, 30 S.W.3d 409, 410-11 (Tex. Crim.App.2000); Peña-Mota v. State, 986 S.W.2d 341, 345 (Tex.App.-Waco 1999, no pet.). We decline to hold that appellant has waived his issues on appeal. See Le-day, 983 S.W.2d at 725; Reyes v. State, 994 S.W.2d 151, 152-53 (Tex.Crim.App. 1999).

Voir Dire as to Burdens of Proof

In his first two issues, appellant complains that his rights to an impartial jury, to effective assistance of counsel, and to due process were violated when the trial court prohibited him from asking questions relating to a comparison of various burdens of proof, including preponderance of the evidence, clear and convincing evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, reasonable suspicion, and probable cause. Appellant asserts that, because of the limitation placed on his voir dire, he was prohibited from educating the prospective jurors on the burden of proof and from intelligently exercising his peremptory challenges. *194 The record shows that appellant had filed a motion specifically requesting that he be allowed to ask questions relating to the prospective jurors’ understanding of these types of proof. Among the questions proposed by appellant was the following: “Do you understand that there is a difference in the amount of proof necessary to reach a verdict and have a decision made in a civil case (preponderance of the evidence) and in a criminal case (beyond a reasonable doubt)?” He also proposed a similar question but substituted termination of parental rights and clear and convincing evidence. Additionally, appellant sought to ask: “Do you understand that proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a higher standard of proof than proof beyond clear and convincing proof?” The trial court denied appellant’s motion, ruled that appellant could not “go into comparisons of the standards of proof,” but permitted appellant to ask the voir dire panel about the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard and what that standard means.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has recently addressed this issue. It determined that voir dire questions regarding the differences between the criminal and civil burdens of proof are relevant to a legitimate defensive challenge for cause, and it held that the trial court abused its discretion by restricting voir dire. Fuller v. State, 363 S.W.3d 583 (Tex.Crim.App. 2012). In Fuller, the court set out the general law regarding the trial court’s discretion to manage voir dire and the right of an accused to ask prospective jurors about what they think reasonable doubt means. Id. at 585-86. A defendant is entitled to question prospective jurors on any matter that will be an issue at trial, including their understanding of “reasonable doubt.” Dinkins v. State, 894 S.W.2d 330, 344-45 (Tex.Crim.App.1995). The court in Fuller stated:

On the strength of our holding in Paulson [v. State, 28 S.W.3d 570 (Tex.Crim.App.2000) ], believing that the appellant’s proposal to contrast reasonable doubt with preponderance of the evidence and clear and convincing evidence would be tantamount to defining it for the jury panel, the trial court in this case disallowed it.

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Leon Willis Wilkerson v. State of Texas, 391 S.W.3d 190, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8312, 2012 WL 4682762 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

391 S.W.3d 190 (Leon Willis Wilkerson v. State of Texas) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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