Caldwell v. State
| Decision Date | 16 October 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 70846,70846 |
| Citation | 818 S.W.2d 790 |
| Parties | Jeffery CALDWELL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appellant, Jeffery Caldwell, was convicted of capital murder. Tex.Penal Code § 19.03(a)(6). At the punishment phase of Appellant's trial, the jury answered affirmatively the three special issues set forth in Article 37.071(b) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. 1 The trial judge then sentenced Appellant to death as required by Article 37.071(e). Direct appeal to this court is automatic. Tex.Code Crim.Proc. art. 37.071(h).
When considered in the light most favorable to the verdict of the jury, the record in this case reveals the following facts. On Monday evening, July 25, 1988, police investigators discovered the partially decomposed bodies of Henry Porter Caldwell, Jr., his wife Gwendolyn Caldwell, and their daughter Kimberly Caldwell wrapped in blankets and stuffed into a camper-trailer parked behind the family's South Dallas home. Autopsies later revealed that Henry and Gwendolyn were each stabbed once through the heart; Kimberly suffered two stab wounds to the chest, one of which penetrated her heart. In addition, all three victims had been brutally beaten about the head with a blunt instrument.
Appellant was arrested for the murders the following morning and properly advised of his Miranda rights. 2 Later that day, Appellant made a voluntary statement to police in which he stated that he had accidentally stabbed to death his sister and parents at approximately 6:00 a.m., Saturday, July 23. Appellant stated that the stabbings occurred after a violent confrontation with his father over his father's refusal to loan Appellant money to purchase insulin. Appellant's original confession, however, failed to account for the severe head injuries of all three victims and the fact that his sister had been stabbed twice. Furthermore, at trial there was evidence that, subsequent to his original confession, Appellant related several additional and conflicting versions of the events to relatives and others.
In his first point of error, Appellant argues that the trial court committed error in denying his request for additional time to voir dire prospective juror Theresa Hearn on special issue number three. See Tex.Code Crim.Proc. art. 37.071(b)(3). During Appellant's voir dire of Hearn, he thrice unsuccessfully challenged the venireperson for cause. When Appellant was notified by the trial judge that his time for voir dire had expired, the following colloquy occurred:
Both parties in this case concede--and the record so-reflects--that the voir dire examination was limited to thirty minutes for each side per individual venireperson. In his brief, Appellant concedes further that, "Certainly the record does not indicate that counsel for appellant at any time save and except as referred to herein objected to this limitation." Thus, Appellant does not complain of the trial judge's general time limitations on the voir dire; rather, he contends only that the trial judge erred in not allowing Appellant more time to examine venireperson Hearn on special issue three.
The control of the voir dire examination is within the sound discretion of the trial judge, and it is well-settled that the trial judge's discretionary authority extends to imposing reasonable limitations on the time for which counsel may question the jury panel. Allridge v. State, 762 S.W.2d 146 (Tex.Cr.App.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1040, 109 S.Ct. 1176, 103 L.Ed.2d 238 (1989); Abron v. State, 523 S.W.2d 405, 408 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); see also Adams v. State, 577 S.W.2d 717, 724 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), modified, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980). The discretion of the trial judge regarding control of the voir dire is not limitless, however; thus, the benefits achieved by accelerating the often lengthy voir dire process "must never be attained at the risk of denying to a party on trial a substantial right." Smith v. State, 703 S.W.2d 641, 645 (Tex.Cr.App.1985).
When an appellant challenges a trial judge's limitation on the voir dire process, the reviewing court must analyze the claim under an abuse of discretion standard, the focus of which is whether the appellant proffered a proper question concerning a proper area of inquiry. Cockrum v. State, 758 S.W.2d 577, 584 (Tex.Cr.App.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1072, 109 S.Ct. 1358, 103 L.Ed.2d 825 (1989) at 584; Allridge, supra at 163. If a proper question is disallowed, harm to the appellant is presumed because he has been denied the ability to intelligently exercise his peremptory strikes. 3 Smith v. State, 703 S.W.2d 641, 643 (Tex.Cr.App.1985); Allridge, supra at 163; Cockrum, supra at 584. Thus, in order to decide if the trial judge erred by disallowing an appellant's voir dire request, the reviewing court must first determine if the appellant proffered a proper question.
A "proper" question is one that seeks to discover a venireperson's views on an issue applicable to the case. Guerra v. State, 771 S.W.2d 453, 468 (Tex.Cr.App.1988), cert. denied, 492 U.S. 925, 109 S.Ct. 3260, 106 L.Ed.2d 606 (1989). However, a voir dire question that is so broad in nature as to constitute a "global fishing expedition" is not proper and may be prevented by the trial judge. Smith v. State, 703 S.W.2d 641, 645 (Tex.Cr.App.1985). In the case at bar, Appellant merely asked to question the venireperson on special issue three, without narrowing the scope of his proposed inquiry. Potentially, a wide range of specific questions--both proper and improper--could have been asked within this general subject area. 4 Given the broad nature of this request, it is impossible for this Court to determine whether the inquiry of Appellant would have been proper--i.e., both appropriately phrased and relevant. Unable to make this determination, this Court cannot find that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing Appellant's request for additional time.
Furthermore, even assuming Appellant's request to question Hearn on issue three was not overly broad, we nonetheless find no reversible error because Appellant never presented the trial judge with one or more specific questions on which she could make a ruling. In Cockrum v. State, supra at 584, we held:
Because this Court applies the abuse of discretion standard, set out above, for deciding appeals concerning the manner of voir dire, it is essential that the record present this Court with a question which the trial judge has not allowed to be answered. If counsel refrains, for what ever [sic] reason, from asking a question, the judge is denied the opportunity to make a ruling. Thus, we are unable to review the correctness of a ruling which was never made. For appellant to have a cognizable point of error, the record must reflect a ruling which appellant wishes to challenge. See Tex.R.App.Pro. 52(a).
As this Court's decision in Cockrum makes apparent, there must be a question before there can be a proper question. In the case-at-bar, when Appellant's time for voir dire expired, he merely requested additional time, which the trial judge denied. Appellant's next statement simply informed the judge of the general subject on which Appellant wanted to question the venireperson. Thus, Appellant failed to preserve a reviewable error in two respects: first, he never presented the trial court with a specific question; second, he failed to obtain an adverse ruling as to that question. Having never framed a question, Appellant has preserved nothing for this Court to review. Consequently, we must leave the trial judge's ruling undisturbed. Point of error number one is overruled.
Appellant's second point of error alleges the trial court erred in excusing prospective juror Bert Chauveaux. The State's voir dire revealed that, if the jury found the defendant guilty of capital murder, the venireperson would then automatically answer yes to special issue number one at the punishment stage:
Q. [BY THE STATE]:
Back to question number one. I want to make sure I understand the answer you gave me previously on that. You told me that you could not presume the answer to number one to be no, that if you found someone intentionally taking two lives you would presume the answer to that to be yes.
A. Yes.
Q. You would automatically answer that question yes?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you sure about?
A. I am sure about that.
Q. This man here is an expert at words. I want to know if you flip-flop on me. I want to know where you are coming from.
A. I am sure about that. The answer automatically would be yes that there was deliberation if I found--if the jury found the defendant guilty of what this indictment says.
At this point, the State submitted the venireperson for cause. Appellant objected to the exclusion of Chauveaux on the ground that his testimony did not demonstrate a bias or prejudice against any phase of the law upon which the State was entitled to rely for conviction or punishment. Tex.Code Crim.Proc. art. 35.16(b)3. The trial court overruled Appellant's objection and excused the venireperson.
Appellant's first argument is that the trial court erred as a matter of law in excusing the venireperson because his voir dire testimony...
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