Martinez v. State

763 S.W.2d 413, 1988 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 168, 1988 WL 96771
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 21, 1988
Docket69303
StatusPublished
Cited by105 cases

This text of 763 S.W.2d 413 (Martinez 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
Martinez v. State, 763 S.W.2d 413, 1988 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 168, 1988 WL 96771 (Tex. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

CLINTON, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of the offense of capital murder under V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 19.03(a)(2). The jury answered all three special issues in the affirmative. Accordingly, the trial court assessed punishment at death. Appellant’s conviction was automatically appealed to this Court. Article 37.071, V.A.C.C.P. Sufficiency of the evidence is not disputed.

In his first point of error appellant maintains his challenges for cause against four veniremen were erroneously denied. Each of these veniremen at some point in his voir dire indicated that upon finding appellant guilty of “intentional” murder, § 19.03(a)(2), supra, he would “automatically” respond affirmatively to special issue one, inquiring whether “the conduct of the defendant that caused the death of the deceased was committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that ... death ... would result.” Article 37.-071(b)(1), supra. We have held that such a position manifests an inability, once the issue of guilt has been resolved against an accused, to reconsider guilt evidence for whatever probative value it will have in the particular context of the first punishment issue, thus exposing the venireman to challenge for cause by either party for harboring a bias against the law. Article 35.16, §§ (b)(3) and (c)(2), V.A.C.C.P. Gardner v. State, 730 S.W.2d 675, 680, (Tex.Cr.App.1987).

At the time he exercised his fifteenth and last peremptory challenge, Article 35.15(a), V.A.C.C.P., appellant requested additional peremptory challenges, expressly complaining of the failure of the trial court to grant his challenges against each of the veniremen he now assails. The trial court granted him one. This he used on the next venireman, after which the trial court expressly denied him any more additional peremptory challenges. Subsequently, the very next venireman became the twelfth juror in the case, over appellant’s assertion that this venireman was objectionable and he would have exercised a peremptory challenge upon him. 1 If we determine that two or more of appellant’s challenges should indeed have been granted, harm would be shown in that appellant was denied the use of at least one of his allotted peremptory challenges. Bell v. State, 724 S.W.2d 780, 795 (Tex.Cr.App.1986); Hernandez v. State, 563 S.W.2d 947, 948 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Wolfe v. State, 147 Tex.Cr.R. 62, 178 S.W.2d 274 (1944). 2

*416 On direct voir dire the prosecutor guided venireman Raymond Segura through the special issues, emphasizing that none of the three questions should “automatically” be answered affirmatively merely upon a verdict of guilty of an “intentional” capital murder. Beginning with the first special issue, she posed a hypothetical designed to illustrate how a defendant could be guilty of an “intentional” murder in the course of a robbery, under the law of parties, on facts that might not support a finding that his particular conduct was “committed deliberately.” 3 She then continued:

“Q. ... So the law is saying look at the conduct of each of the individual people and see did their conduct cause the death of the deceased and was it committed deliberately with the reasonable expectation that somebody would die.
So could you see that you answer Issue One yes or no on the evidence?
A. Yes.
Q. And what’s real important is that you realize that you never automatically answer Issue One yes because you found the Defendant guilty of capital murder? A. Right, yes, okay.
Q. True, when you find somebody guilty of capital murder, it’s an intentional killing; but that never means that you answer Issue One yes.
A. I understand.
Q. Okay.
Again, I hate to belabor the point, but I think it’s real critical. The words sound so terrible, gosh, you found somebody guilty of an intentional killing, you didn’t find that their conduct caused the death of the deceased. You say no, the 17 year-old was just a lookout inside the bank, and he was scared stiff to be there. He doesn’t know those two ex-cons planned to kill the teller. And that’s why it’s real important as to Issue One that you always look at the conduct of the individuals, that you base your answer on the evidence and never say, well, knee-jerk reaction, intentional killing, guilty of capital murder, Issue One, yes. Okay?
A. Okay.”

After briefly discussing special issues two and three, the prosecutor revisited issue one, suggesting a distinction between “deliberate” and “intentional,” thus:

“Q. I want to talk a little bit about this word, deliberately, and what it means. The word deliberately does not mean premedidated [sic] or preplanned. Webster’s defines it as willfully or purposefully.
You can go in and plan to rob a U-Totem. You didn’t plan it before you went to kill the man. You didn’t deliberately intend to kill the man. During the course of the robbery, he may have come in, and that customer knows you, and in a second the Defendant shoots because he knows the man can recognize him, and he kills the customer.
Can you see that his crime was not premeditated or preplanned, but his act in killing the customer was willful and purposeful?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, the law again, and this question with deliberately is trying to go to the different states of mind of Defendant’s. You may have a Defendant that goes in with a gun and fires the gun in the air to scare everyone, to get them on the ground so they won’t see. And the bullet hits a beam and strikes the teller or the clerk, and the teller dies. Capital murder, intentionally during the course of the robbery. He intended to pull the trigger, intended for the gun to be fired, intended for the gun to go off; but was that act deliberate? Did he willfully or purposefully want the death of the clerk? You see the distinction?
A. Yes, I see the distinction.
Q. And the state of. minds we are talking about?
A. Yes.
Q. So you’re going to have situations were [sic] there was an intentional killing, intentionally pulling the gun and pulling the trigger, but it will not be a deliberate act?
*417 A. Yes.
Q. Okay.

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Bluebook (online)
763 S.W.2d 413, 1988 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 168, 1988 WL 96771, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-v-state-texcrimapp-1988.