Pearson v. State

587 S.W.2d 393
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 3, 1979
Docket58055
StatusPublished

This text of 587 S.W.2d 393 (Pearson 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
Pearson v. State, 587 S.W.2d 393 (Tex. 1979).

Opinion

587 S.W.2d 393 (1979)

Judith Leigh PEARSON, Appellant,
v.
The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 58055.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, Panel No. 3.

July 3, 1979.
Rehearing Denied October 17, 1979.

Stephen E. VanGaasbeck and E. D. Christensen, Houston, for appellant.

Carol S. Vance, Dist. Atty., Michael Kuhn, and Vic Driscoll, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before ODOM, PHILLIPS and W. C. DAVIS, JJ.

Rehearing En Banc Denied October 17, 1979.

OPINION

ODOM, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for murder; punishment was assessed by the court at life.

The sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged. Although three grounds of error are asserted in the brief, the second was abandoned at oral argument, leaving two issues for consideration in this appeal.

In her first ground of error appellant contends the trial court erroneously admitted papers and writings seized during a search of the homicide scene. As pointed out in her supplemental brief, this search and seizure were in violation of the principle announced in Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978). The search was conducted on April 9, 1976, and the trial in this case was in January of 1977. Thus, both the search and trial were conducted prior to the decision in Mincey v. Arizona, supra. At that time the common law "exigency rule" allowed such homicide scene investigations. Brown v. State, 475 S.W.2d 938, 948-950. We are therefore confronted with the question of the retroactive effect of Mincey.

In United States v. Peltier, 422 U.S. 531, 95 S.Ct. 2313, 45 L.Ed.2d 374 (1975), the court discussed the retroactivity of exclusionary rule cases from the perspectives of *394 both the imperative of judicial integrity and the deterrence rationale:

"Since 1965 this Court has repeatedly struggled with the question of whether rulings in criminal cases should be given retroactive effect. In those cases `[w]here the major purpose of new constitutional doctrine is to overcome an aspect of the criminal trial that substantially impairs its truth-finding function and so raises serious questions about the accuracy of guilty verdicts in past trials,' Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. 646, 653, 91 S.Ct. 1148, 1152, 28 L.Ed.2d 388 (1971), the doctrine has quite often been applied retroactively. It is indisputable, however, that in every case in which the Court has addressed the retroactivity problem in the context of the exclusionary rule, whereby concededly relevant evidence is excluded in order to enforce a constitutional guarantee that does not relate to the integrity of the factfinding process, the Court has concluded that any such new constitutional principle would be accorded only prospective application. Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965); Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966); Stovall v. Denno, supra [388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199]; Fuller v. Alaska, 393 U.S. 80, 89 S.Ct. 61, 21 L.Ed.2d 212 (1968); Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 22 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969); Jenkins v. Delaware, 395 U.S. 213, 89 S.Ct. 1677, 23 L.Ed.2d 253 (1969); Williams v. United States, supra; Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971).
"We think that these cases tell us a great deal about the nature of the exclusionary rule, as well as something about the nature of retroactivity analysis. Decisions of this Court applying the exclusionary rule to unconstitutionally seized evidence have referred to `the imperative of judicial integrity,' Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960), although the Court has relied principally upon the deterrent purpose served by the exclusionary rule. See Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961); Lee v. Florida, 392 U.S. 378, 88 S.Ct. 2096, 20 L.Ed.2d 1166 (1968); See also United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974). And see also Oaks, Studying the Exclusionary Rule in Search and Seizure, 37 U.Chi.L.Rev. 665, 668-672 (1970).
"When it came time to consider whether those decisions would be applied retroactively, however, the Court recognized that the introduction of evidence which had been seized by law enforcement officials in good-faith compliance with then-prevailing constitutional norms did not make the courts `accomplices in the willful disobedience of a Constitution they are sworn to uphold.' Elkins v. United States, supra, 364 U.S., at 223, 80 S.Ct. at 1447. Thus, while the `imperative of judicial integrity' played a role in this Court's decision to overrule Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 93 L.Ed. 1782 (1949), see Mapp v. Ohio, supra, 367 U.S., at 659, 81 S.Ct. at 1693, the Mapp decision was not applied retroactively: `Rather than being abhorrent at the time of seizure in this case, the use in state trials of illegally seized evidence had been specifically authorized by this Court in Wolf.' Linkletter v. Walker, supra, 381 U.S., at 638, 85 S.Ct., at 1742 (footnote omitted). Similarly, in Lee v. Florida, supra, this Court overruled Schwartz v. Texas, 344 U.S. 199, 73 S.Ct. 232, 97 L.Ed. 231 (1952), and held that evidence seized in violation of Sec. 605 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 1103, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 605, by state officers could not be introduced into evidence at state criminal trials:
"`[T]he decision we reach today is not based upon language and doctrinal symmetry alone. It is buttressed as well by the "imperative of judicial integrity." Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, [80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669]. Under our Constitution no court, state or *395 federal, may serve as an accomplice in the willful transgression of "the Laws of the United States," laws by which "the Judges in every State [are] bound ..."' 392 U.S., at 385-386, 88 S.Ct. at 2101 (footnotes omitted).
"But when it came time to consider the retroactivity of Lee, the Court held that it would not be applied retroactively, saying:
"`Retroactive application of Lee would overturn every state conviction obtained in good-faith reliance on Schwartz.

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Related

Nardone v. United States
302 U.S. 379 (Supreme Court, 1937)
Trupiano v. United States
334 U.S. 699 (Supreme Court, 1948)
Wolf v. Colorado
338 U.S. 25 (Supreme Court, 1949)
United States v. Jeffers
342 U.S. 48 (Supreme Court, 1951)
Schwartz v. Texas
344 U.S. 199 (Supreme Court, 1952)
Elkins v. United States
364 U.S. 206 (Supreme Court, 1960)
Mapp v. Ohio
367 U.S. 643 (Supreme Court, 1961)
Linkletter v. Walker
381 U.S. 618 (Supreme Court, 1965)
Johnson v. New Jersey
384 U.S. 719 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Stovall v. Denno
388 U.S. 293 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Katz v. United States
389 U.S. 347 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Lee v. Florida
392 U.S. 378 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Fuller v. Alaska
393 U.S. 80 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Desist v. United States
394 U.S. 244 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Jenkins v. Delaware
395 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Vale v. Louisiana
399 U.S. 30 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Williams v. United States
401 U.S. 646 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Hill v. California
401 U.S. 797 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Coolidge v. New Hampshire
403 U.S. 443 (Supreme Court, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
587 S.W.2d 393, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pearson-v-state-texcrimapp-1979.