Love v. State

909 S.W.2d 930, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 2000, 1995 WL 501433
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 24, 1995
Docket08-92-00365-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by93 cases

This text of 909 S.W.2d 930 (Love 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
Love v. State, 909 S.W.2d 930, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 2000, 1995 WL 501433 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

McCLURE, Justice.

This is an appeal from a jury conviction for the offense of murder. The jury assessed punishment at life imprisonment. We affirm.

PAROLE LAW INSTRUCTION

In Appellant’s first point of error, he asserts the court erred by including the parole law instruction in the charge at the punishment stage of trial pursuant to Tex.Code CRImPROcANN. art. 37.07, § 4(b) (Vernon Supp.1994). The instruction stated:

Under the law applicable in this case, the defendant, if sentenced to a term of imprisonment, may earn time off the period of incarceration imposed through the award of good conduct time. Prison authorities may award good conduct time to a prisoner who exhibits good behavior, diligence in carrying out prison work assignments, and attempts at rehabilitation. If a prisoner engages in misconduct, prison authorities may also take away all or part of any good conduct time earned by the prisoner.
It is also possible that the length of time for which the defendant will be imprisoned might be reduced by the award of parole.
Under the law applicable in this ease, if the defendant is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, he will not become eligible for parole until the actual time served equals one-fourth of the sentence imposed or fifteen years, whichever is less, without consideration of any good conduct time he may earn. If the defendant is sentenced to a term of less than six years, he must serve at least two years before he is eligible for parole. Eligibility for parole does not guarantee that parole will be granted.
It cannot accurately be predicted how the parole law and good conduct time might be applied to this defendant if he is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, because the application of these laws will depend on decisions made by prison and parole authorities.
You may consider the existence of the parole law and good conduct time. However, you are not to consider the extent to which good conduct time may be awarded to or forfeited by this particular defendant. You are not to consider the manner in which the parole law may be applied to this particular defendant.
This section does not permit the introduction of evidence on the operation of parole and good conduct time laws.

At trial, Appellant objected to this instruction of the grounds that: (1) the inclusion of the instruction violated the ex post facto provision of the Texas Constitution as the constitutional amendment which allowed the instruction did not take effect until 1991; (2) as the statute providing for the instruction did not exist in 1979, its inclusion was viola-tive of the separation of powers clause of the Texas Constitution; and (3) the instruction violates the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. The court overruled these objections.

On appeal, Appellant asserts that the instruction, in this circumstance, is a violation of the ex post facto provision. He also maintains that he was harmed in that the law applicable at the time of the commission of the offense provided that an individual serve calendar time of one-third of the sentence while the instruction indicated that one- *934 fourth of the time would be served. 1 This last contention appears for the first time on appeal.

Regarding the first contention, Article I, § 16 of the Texas Constitution provides that “[n]o bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made.” Grimes v. State, 807 S.W.2d 582, 583 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). In order to violate Article I, § 16, a law must punish as a crime an act committed prior to the passage of the law, which was innocent when done; make more burdensome the punishment for an offense after its commission; or deprive one accused with a crime of any defense available according to the law at the time the act was committed. Id. In French v. State, 830 S.W.2d 607, 608 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), the accused committed the offense prior to the re-enactment of Article 37.07, § 4, but the trial occurred after the 1989 effective date of the reenactment. 2 The accused complained of the inclusion of the parole law instruction as an ex post facto violation. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that the inclusion of the instruction simply informed the jury that good conduct time and parole exist. Further, it admonished the jury that it may not consider the maimer in which the parole may be applied to the defendant. The court reasoned that the instruction does not punish criminally an act previously committed which was innocent when done; it does not make punishment for a crime more burdensome after its commission; and it does not deprive an accused of a defense which was available to him or her at the time the act was committed. French, 830 S.W.2d at 608.

Appellant urges, first, that French is not applicable to the instant case because the offense in French “appears to have occurred after September 1, 1987.” Appellant states that the 1987 amendment contained language stating that any offense committed before the effective date was covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed; the 1987 amendment did not. 3 However, as the French case does not state when that offense occurred, it cannot be so distinguished on the asserted factual difference. See French, 830 S.W.2d at 608-09.

Next, Appellant contests the holding in French that the parole instruction does not violate the ex post facto provision of the Texas Constitution by not making “more burdensome the punishment for a crime after its commission.” Id. at 608. Appellant reasons that an instruction suggesting to the jury that an individual will serve only a fraction of the sentence they assess will, of necessity, induce them to assess a longer sentence thereby making the punishment more burdensome. He maintains that this is especially true when, as in his case, the instruction given is incorrect as to how his parole eligibility would be calculated.

The holding in French that the issuance of the parole law instruction does not make more burdensome the punishment for an offense after its commission is predicated on the fact that the instruction merely informs the jury that good conduct time and parole exist and the instruction then admonishes the jury that it may not consider the manner in which the parole law may be applied to the accused. French, 830 S.W.2d at 608. This holding and its attendant reasoning are obviously controlling regarding the issue and we adhere to such holding.

Lastly, Appellant asserts that he was harmed by the erroneous instruction that he *935

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
909 S.W.2d 930, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 2000, 1995 WL 501433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/love-v-state-texapp-1995.