Washington v. State

771 S.W.2d 537, 1989 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 38
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 1, 1989
DocketNo. 69737
StatusPublished
Cited by84 cases

This text of 771 S.W.2d 537 (Washington 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
Washington v. State, 771 S.W.2d 537, 1989 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 38 (Tex. 1989).

Opinions

OPINION

MILLER, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder. V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 19.03. The death penalty was imposed after the jury answered affirmatively the special issues submitted under Art. 37.071, V.A.C.C.P. Appellant raises nine points of error before this Court, but he does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction. We therefore will recite the facts only as necessary to address appellant’s points of error. We will affirm appellant’s conviction.

The record reflects that on December 19, 1985, Yemane Kidane and Kifelmariam Ta-reh were working in Mike’s Food Market of which Kidane was a part owner. At approximately 8:30 p.m. that evening, appellant entered the store and went to the back where Tareh was stocking the cooler with beer. Holding Tareh at gunpoint, appellant approached the register where Kidane was working and said, “Give me all the money. I’m going to hurt you.” Kidane gave appellant between seventy and one hundred dollars in cash and some food stamps. Appellant allegedly then moved Tareh to the right one step, shot Kidane in the jaw, shot Tareh in the head killing him and then left the store. Kidane, who was not killed by the shot to his jaw, then ran out of the store and fired two shots into the air from a gun that he had in his pocket. Kidane then went to a lounge next to the food market to ask for help in getting the police and an ambulance. Kidane later identified appellant as the alleged perpetrator. Kidane stated he did not know appellant’s name, but he recognized him because he came into the food market on a daily basis.

In his first point of error, appellant contends that the prosecutor’s opening statement to the jury invited the jury to consider the impact of the murder on the deceased’s wife and “created an unacceptable risk that the jury imposed the death penalty ... in an arbitrary and capricious manner in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States [540]*540Constitution.”1 Appellant makes two arguments as to why the prosecutor’s comment and the wife’s testimony amount to reversible error: (1) that the prosecutor’s statement in effect made the wife’s testimony a “walking victim impact statement”; and (2) that the wife’s testimony amounted to a “witness outburst”, both of which had a prejudicial effect on the jury.

Immediately prior to commencement of the trial, the trial judge admonished the jury that the opening statement is not evidence but is an aid to understanding the nature of the case and the significance of the evidence when it is introduced. In his opening statement in the guilt/innocenCe phase of trial, the prosecutor stated to the jury:

Also anticipate Miss Tiberh Tsegai to testify, who is the wife of the deceased, concerning their relationship and some background on the deceased.

When the State called Tsegai to testify appellant’s trial counsel promptly requested a hearing outside the presence of the jury for a determination of the relevancy of Tsegai’s testimony. Defense counsel contended the State was calling Tsegai to establish that her husband, the deceased, was a good and peaceful man, and thereby inflame the jury. The State rebutted that Tsegai’s testimony was necessary to establish the identity of the deceased. “In an abundance of caution”, the trial court allowed the prosecutor to ask Tsegai questions outside the presence of the jury.

While testifying, outside the presence of the jury, about the deceased’s background and identifying him, Tsegai began to cry. Defense counsel reiterated his argument that the “grieving widow[’s]” testimony would prejudice the jury against appellant. The trial judge instructed Tsegai that she would not be allowed to testify unless she could answer the prosecutor’s questions without any sort of outcry or tears. The trial judge also instructed the prosecutor to limit his questioning of Tsegai to the issues of identification of the deceased, the spelling of his name, and Tsegai’s relationship to him. The jury was brought back into the courtroom and the trial continued. On direct examination of Tsegai, the prosecutor elicited only the following testimony:

Q. Will you tell us your name?
A. My name Tiberh Tsegai.
Q. And where do you live, ma’am?
A. I am living in Dallas.
Q. And, Miss Tsegai, prior, before December 1985, had you been married?
A. 1982.
Q. Got married in 1982?
A. Yes.
Q. And what was the name of the person that you married?
A. Kifelmariam.
Q. He have a last name?
A. Kifelmariam Tareh.
Q. And, Miss Tsegai, did you bring something with you that had your husband’s name written on it?
A. Yes.
* * * * * *
Q. And I’m going to show you what’s been marked as State’s Exhibit No. 51 and ask you: Does this social security card have your husband’s name on it?
A. Yes.
Q. And I’m going to show you State’s Exhibit No. 51-A and is this a copy of the card?
A. Okay.
Q. Is this a copy?
A. Yes.
[Prosecutor]: Your Honor, the State would offer in evidence State’s Exhibit No. 51-A. I tender it to Defense Counsel.
[Defense Counsel]: We have no objection, Your Honor.
The Court: State’s Exhibit 51-A is received into evidence without objection.
[541]*541Q. (by the Prosecutor) Miss Tsegai, you’re going to have to go back to Dallas tonight?
A. Yes.
[Defense Counsel]: Object, Your Honor, to that question.
The Court: Objection sustained.
* # * * ⅜ *
Q. Miss Tsegai, I’m going to show you what’s been marked for identification State’s exhibit No. 35 (a full-faced morgue photograph of the deceased) and can you, if you know, identify the person in that photograph?
A. Yes.
Q. And who is that?
A. It’s my husband.
Q. And that’s Kifelmariam Tareh?
A. Yes.
[Prosecutor]: Pass the witness, Your Honor.
[Defense Counsel]: I have nothing of this witness, Your Honor.

As direct authority for vacating his death sentence, appellant cites Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 107 S.Ct. 2529, 96 L.Ed.2d 440 (1987). In that case, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional a Maryland statute which required introduction of a victim impact statement at the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial.

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Bluebook (online)
771 S.W.2d 537, 1989 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/washington-v-state-texcrimapp-1989.