Williams v. State

622 S.W.2d 116, 1981 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1188
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided October 14, 1981·No. 67147·Published·Cited by 126 cases

Opinions

OPINION

ROBERTS, Judge.

The appellant was found guilty of capital murder; the jury answered affirmatively special issues (1) and (2), Article 37.071(b) V.A.C.C.P., and accordingly the punishment [118]*118was assessed at death. The sufficiency of the evidence at either the guilt or punishment phase of the trial is not challenged.

By his first ground of error the appellant contends that the trial court committed reversible error in excusing for cause Venire Members Tillman, Criner, Anderson and Ol-igney. He contends that these prospective jurors were excused in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments as construed in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968). In examining the Texas procedure for selecting jurors in capital cases the Supremé Court of the United States recently stated:

“[T]he general proposition [is] that a jur- or may not be challenged for cause based on his views about capital punishment unless those views would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath. The State may insist, however, that jurors will consider and decide the facts impartially and conscientiously apply the law as charged by the court.
“. .. If the juror is to obey his oath and follow the law of Texas, he must be willing not only to accept that in certain circumstances death is an acceptable penalty but also to answer the statutory questions without conscious distortion or bias. The State does not violate the Witherspoon doctrine when it excludes prospective jurors who are unable or unwilling to address the penalty questions with this degree of impartiality.” Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 2526, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980).

Based on the record before us, we conclude that the aforementioned venire members were unable or unwilling to consider the statutory special issues with the degree of impartiality to which the State was entitled.

Venire Member Tillman gave conflicting responses when asked whether under any circumstances he could answer the special punishment issues affirmatively. Although he initially stated that he could answer “Yes” if the issues were proved by the evidence, Tillman later stated that his religious beliefs would prevent him from answering the punishment questions. At the conclusion of his voir dire examination Tillman agreed that he would automatically respond “No” to one of the issues to prevent the appellant from receiving the death penalty even though the evidence was to the contrary.

Venire Member Criner informed the trial court that she did not believe in capital punishment. Criner further stated that no matter what the evidence might show she believed that she would vote “No” on at least one special issue to prevent the imposition of the death penalty. Criner expressed the belief that she could not answer both issues “Yes” no matter “how horrible the circumstances.”

Venire Member Anderson stated that her conscience would not permit her “under any circumstances” to answer both issues “Yes.” Anderson agreed that she would automatically vote “No” simply because she did not believe in the death penalty.

Venire Member Oligney also gave conflicting answers when asked whether she could answer the punishment issues affirmatively. Oligney initially stated that she “imagine[d]” that she could vote “Yes” to both issues, but she was not certain. Olig-ney subsequently concluded that she would probably answer “No” to at least one of the special issues “in spite of the evidence” because she did not believe in capital punishment.

The record adequately demonstrates that these venire members’ views about capital punishment would have prevented or substantially impaired the performance of their duties as jurors in accordance with their instructions. Thus we conclude that the trial court did not err in excusing them for cause. The appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

By his second ground the appellant contends that the trial court committed reversible error in denying his challenge for cause to the twelfth juror selected, Alva Jean Wagner. Specifically the appellant [119]*119asserts that the voir dire examination revealed that Wagner was not qualified to sit on the jury because: (1) she would be inclined in a case involving an “atrocious” murder to find the accused guilty of capital murder even though the evidence failed to establish the alleged aggravating circumstances, and (2) she would not consider life imprisonment for a defendant found guilty of capital murder.

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Williams v. State, 622 S.W.2d 116, 1981 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1188 (Tex. 1981).

622 S.W.2d 116 (Williams v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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