Shorten v. State

764 S.W.2d 358, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 310, 1989 WL 13400
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 12, 1989
Docket09-86-149-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 764 S.W.2d 358 (Shorten 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
Shorten v. State, 764 S.W.2d 358, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 310, 1989 WL 13400 (Tex. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinions

OPINION ON REMAND

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

Appellant was convicted by a jury of the offense of murder. The jury assessed punishment at 15 years confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections. Appellant perfected appeal and this Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Shorten v. State, 751 S.W.2d 262 (Tex.App. —Beaumont 1988), vacated and remanded, 758 S.W.2d 600 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

In that opinion the majority of this Court found that since Appellant had not objected to the parole and good time credit portion of the trial court’s charge on the same grounds she urged on appeal for reversal, no ground of error was preserved. The majority held that the proper standards for reviewing the point of error concerning constitutionality of the court’s charge to the jury were those set out in Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). Upon finding no egregious harm resulted from the giving of the parole law instruction mandated by TEX.CODE CRIM. PROC.ANN. art. 37.07(4) (Vernon Supp. 1988), we overruled Appellant’s point of error concerning this instruction. Subsequently, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the parole and good time credit instruction mandated by TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC.ANN. art. 37.07(4) was unconstitutional. Rose v. State, 752 S.W.2d 529 (Tex. Crim.App.1988) (opinion on rehearing). Furthermore, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the proper standard for analyzing the harmfulness of such error is that codified in TEX.R.APP.P. 81(b)(2). Rose II, at 554. Upon Appellant’s petition for discretionary review, the Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the cause to this Court so that we may determine whether the error in giving the unconstitutional instruction to the jury was harmless error under Rule 81(b)(2), Shorten v. State, 758 S.W.2d 600, 601 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

Rule 81(b)(2) reads as follows:

[359]*359“If the appellate record in a criminal case reveals error in the proceedings below, the appellate court shall reverse the judgment under review, unless the appellate court determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the error made no contribution to the conviction or to the punishment.”

Applying the harm analysis of Rule 81(b)(2) to the facts of this case, Appellant was convicted of the murder of her ex-husband. The jury was charged on the issue of self-defense and the lesser included offenses of voluntary manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The jury rejected Appellant’s claim that she shot the victim in self-defense. We are unable to know what process the jury used in assessing punishment; however, the record includes factors and facts showing that the error was harmless.

In addition to the statutory instruction not to use information concerning parole in assessing Appellant’s punishment, the trial judge also gave the jury the additional following instruction:

“During your deliberations you are not to consider or discuss the Indeterminate Sentence Law or possible actions of the Board of Pardons and Paroles on how long this Defendant will be required to serve the punishment you assess.”

The Court of Criminal Appeals has held that a similar instruction was a significant factor indicating that such error in the charge on punishment was harmless. Rose II, at 554.

Furthermore, the facts of this case militate in favor of, if anything, a harsher sentence than was actually assessed. The evidence showed that Appellant shot Billy Shorten when he was not armed, and while he was quite a number of yards away from her. While Appellant claimed the victim was approaching her in a threatening manner, as if he were going to choke her, and that he was very near to her when the deadly shot was fired, the physical evidence at the scene was quite inconsistent with Appellant’s version of the facts. And the jury rejected Appellant’s narrative. It is also undisputed that, within a week after the killing, Appellant signed a claim for benefits under insurance policies on the life of her ex-husband. The jury could have sentenced Appellant to 99 years or life in prison, and imposed a fine of $10,000.00. Instead, the jury assessed Appellant’s punishment at 15 years confinement, far less than the maximum sentence possible for the offense of murder.

The dissent cites with approval Garay v. State, 755 S.W.2d 956 (Tex.App. — San Antonio 1988, no pet.), and Olivarez v. State, 756 S.W.2d 113 (Tex.App. — San Antonio 1988, no pet.). Garay, supra, at 957, specifically condemns “the negating ‘weasel words’.” The negating instruction in TEX. CODE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art. 37.07(4) (Vernon Supp.1988) is derisively and derogatorily referred to as “weasel words” in Garay, supra. We disagree that these are “weasel words.”

In Olivarez, at page 115, the Court wrote:

“The curative instruction to totally disregard parole in Rose II was the prime reason for the Court’s affirmance_”

(Emphasis added)

Olivarez’s opinion’s reasoning is not sound because, in a case where the accused might have an unappealing appearance or even a repulsive appearance or personality, it is certainly likely that such an accused could receive an extremely high term of years as punishment. Yet if the non-statutory curative instruction to totally disregard parole was given, then Olivarez, supra, reasonably stands for the proposition that an af-firmance would result. Further, in Oliva-rez, supra, the Court wrote, at page 115:

“The heinous facts of Rose and Rose’s criminal record buttressed the presumption that the jury followed the curative instruction to totally disregard the erroneously given statutory instruction, since the facts and the criminal record militated in favor of a harsh sentence and contributed to the jury's assessment of punishment. See Rose II at 532, 533 [SIC]. Based on the presumption that the jury totally disregarded parole, as supported by the facts and the criminal record, the Court in Rose II was able to determine [360]*360beyond a reasonable doubt that the erroneous statutory instruction that was given made no contribution to the punishment. The Court of Criminal Appeals did not reason that because the facts and criminal record justified or supported a life sentence, the erroneously given instruction did not contribute to the punishment. Such reasoning would incorrectly apply Rule 81(b)(2). ‘The evil to be avoided is the consideration by the jury of parole in assessing punishment.’ Rose I [Rose v. State, 752 S.W.2d 529] at 535 [ (Tex.Cr.App.1987) ] (quoting Clark v. State, 643 S.W.2d 723, 725 (Tex.Crim. App.1982)).”

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948 S.W.2d 807 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1997)
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774 S.W.2d 276 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
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772 S.W.2d 525 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Shorten v. State
764 S.W.2d 358 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
764 S.W.2d 358, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 310, 1989 WL 13400, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shorten-v-state-texapp-1989.