Shelby v. State

479 S.W.2d 31, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2565
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 8, 1972
Docket45152
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 479 S.W.2d 31 (Shelby 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
Shelby v. State, 479 S.W.2d 31, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2565 (Tex. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION

ONION, Presiding Judge.

This appeal arises out of a conviction for burglary with intent to commit theft where the punishment was assessed at five years.

It presents questions concerning the eligibility of 18 year olds to serve as jurors, the constitutionality of using the voter registration lists as the sole source for names to be placed in the jury wheel and related questions.

Appellant vigorously urges that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to quash the jury panel in view of his claim that the panel was drawn in violation of the United States Constitution and because of the “irreconcilable conflict” within the provisions of Senate Bill No. 369 (Acts 1971, 62nd Leg., ch. 369, p. 2797) and the further conflict between such bill and the provisions of Article 35.12, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.

At his trial on October 4, 1971, in the 140th District Court the 18 year old appellant, a non-registered voter and resident of Lubbock, urged his motion. It was stipulated that Lubbock County officials during the first fifteen days of August, 1971, had filled the jury wheel utilizing the then current voter registration lists but eliminating therefrom the names of all persons shown to be between 18 and 21 years of age as well as all other persons who were qualified jurors but who had not registered to vote. It was further stipulated that “according to the 1970 Federal census there were approximately 101,000 persons in Lubbock County over the age of twenty-one years who would be qualified voters if they registered” to vote; that the Lubbock County jury wheel filled August, 1970, contained in excess of 100,000 names; that there were 49,536 registered voters “appearing on the list of Lubbock County as of August 1, 1971”; that there are approximately 12,000 persons between the ages of 18 and 21 years in Lubbock County who are registered and qualified voters. 1

The motion to quash was overruled.

It appears that in filling the jury wheel the Lubbock County officials relied upon Article 2094, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., as amended by said Senate Bill No. 369, ef *34 fective July IS, 1971, requiring them to use the voter registration list as the sole and mandatory source for the wheel and upon Article 2133, V.A.C.S., requiring jurors to be 21 years of age as well as Attorney General’s Opinion M-911 (July 20, 1971).

In support of his contention the court erred in overruling his motion appellant argues that at the time the jury wheel was being filled the Twenty-sixth Amendment 2 to the United States Constitution had been sufficiently ratified, 3 and he further relies upon the provisions of said Senate Bill No. 369.

As we understand it, appellant contends that the right of suffrage thus conferred upon those citizens 18 years or older necessarily carried with it the right to serve as jurors; that our statutes relating to qualifications of jurors must be construed in light of the adoption of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

We cannot agree with the contention advanced. The said Twenty-sixth Amendment did not confer upon citizens 18 years or older the right to vote but simply prohibited discrimination against them on account of age.

The Dallas Court of Civil Appeals when faced with a strikingly similar question concerning the Nineteenth Amendment held in Glover v. Cobb et al., 123 S.W.2d 794 (1939-writ ref’d) that a qualified voter is not ipso facto a qualified juror. Cf. Harper v. State, 90 Tex.Cr.R. 252, 234 S.W. 909 (1921). We concur. '

Surely the states still retain the right to determine the qualifications of the jurors to serve in their own courts and may place the burden of such public duty on certain age groups, even providing exemption, though not disqualification, on account of age. We do not view the United States Constitution as prohibiting a state from confining juror selection to citizens, persons within certain ages, etc., Glover v. Cobb, supra; Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 310, 25 L.Ed. 664. 4

In Carter v. Jury Comm. of Greene County, 396 U.S. 320, 90 S.Ct. 518, 24 L.Ed.2d 549, the court said:

“It has long been accepted that the Constitution does not forbid the States to prescribe relevant qualifications for their jurors. The States remain free to confine the selection to citizens, to persons meeting specified qualifications of age and educational attainment, and to those possessing good intelligence, sound judgment and fair character. Our duty to protect the federal constitutional rights of all does not mean we must or should impose on States our conception of the proper source of jury lists, so long as the source reflects a cross section of the population suitable in character and intelligence for that civic duty.”

Thus we hold that 18 year olds are not qualified jurors.

*35 We turn now to appellant's contention that there is an internal conflict between the provisions of said Senate Bill No. 369, §§ 1 and 11.

Section 1 of such bill amended Article 2094, V.A.C.S., to read:

“Between the first and fifteenth days of August of each year, in each county in this state, the tax collector, sheriff, county clerk, and district clerk of the county, each in person or represented by one of his deputies, shall meet at the county courthouse and reconstitute the jury wheel, using as the sole and mandatory source, all names on the voter registration lists from all precincts in the county.” (emphasis supplied).

Section 11 of the said Senate Bill No. 369 amended subsection 1 of Article 2133, V.A.C.S., so that such statute now reads:

“All persons both male and female over twenty-one (21) years of age are competent jurors, unless disqualified under some provision of this chapter. No person shall be qualified to serve as a juror who does not possess the following qualifications:
“1. He must be a citizen of the State and of the County in which he is to serve, and qualified under the Constitution and laws to vote in said County.
“2. He must be of sound mind and good moral character.
“3. He must be able to read and write, except as otherwise provided herein.
“4. He must not have served as a juror for six (6) days during the preceding six (6) months in the District Court, or during the preceding three (3) months in the County Court.
“5. He must not have been convicted of felony.
“6.

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Bluebook (online)
479 S.W.2d 31, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shelby-v-state-texcrimapp-1972.