Chappell v. State, 71025

• Decision Date: 03 February 1993
• Docket Number: No. 71025,71025
• Citation: 850 S.W.2d 508
• Parties: William Wesley CHAPPELL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 508

850 S.W.2d 508

William Wesley CHAPPELL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 71025.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas En Banc.

Feb. 3, 1993.

Rehearing Denied April 7, 1993.

Michael Logan Ware, Fort Worth, for appellant.

Tim Curry, Dist. Atty., and C. Chris Marshall, Tanya S. Dohoney and Michael Parrish, Asst. Dist. Attys., Fort Worth, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before the court en banc.

OPINION

BAIRD, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder pursuant to Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2). ¹ The jury affirmatively answered the two issues submitted pursuant to Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071, § 2(b). ² Punishment was assessed at death. Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071, § 2(e). Appeal to this Court is automatic. Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071, § 2(h). We will reverse.

I.

As appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, we will dispense with a recitation of any facts unnecessary to the resolution of the point of error under consideration. In his nineteenth point of error, appellant contends the trial judge erred in granting the State's motion to shuffle the venire after the venire had been shuffled at appellant's request. ³ For the following reasons, we agree and sustain appellant's nineteenth point of error.

II.

The venire was shuffled twice, first on appellant's motion, and again on the State's motion. Appellant contends only one shuffle is allowed under Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 35.11. ⁴ The State contends that there is no prohibition against a second shuffle under art. 35.11. State's amended brief, pg. 92.

A.

Initially, the State contends this point of error is not preserved for appellate review for two reasons. First the State contends appellant's objection was untimely. We disagree. The record reflects that appellant made a timely and specific objection to the State's motion to shuffle the venire. ⁵ See, Lankston v. State, 827 S.W.2d 907 (Tex.Cr.App.1992). The State next contends appellant failed to obtain a ruling on the objection. Likewise, this argument is without merit. Appellant's objection was overruled when the trial judge granted the State's motion to shuffle the venire. See generally, Tex.R.App.P. 52(a). Accordingly, this point of error was preserved for our review.

B.

Having determined the error, if any, was preserved, we now turn to address the merits of appellant's nineteenth point of error. As previously noted, appellant contends only one shuffle is allowed under Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 35.11. The State contends a second shuffle is not prohibited under art. 35.11.

In Fontenot v. State, 379 S.W.2d 334 (Tex.Cr.App.1964), we held a second jury shuffle was not authorized, holding:

This Bill of Exception complains of the action of the Court, over objection and exception of Defendant, after completion of the jury list under the procedure of Articles 626, 627, and 628 VACCP at the demand of the parties hereto, in permitting then, upon demand by the State's counsel, a second shuffle, not authorized by law. ⁶

This complaint is, we think, meritorious and should have been granted. Appellant was here objecting to the action of the trial court in allowing the state a second shuffle, not authorized by statute.

Id. at 334.

The State argues Stark v. State, 657 S.W.2d 115 (Tex.Cr.App.1983), impliedly overruled Fontenot. In Stark the defendant objected to the trial judge's refusal to seat a venire in the courtroom before calling for any motions to shuffle. The trial judge allowed the attorneys to view the venire in the central jury room but refused the defendant's request to bring the venire to the courtroom. The State moved to shuffle the venire and the trial judge granted this motion. When the venire was seated in the courtroom the defendant moved to shuffle the venire and the trial judge denied the motion. We held appellant has an "absolute right to have the jury shuffled" and "[t]he statute ... contemplates that court business will be conducted in the courtroom." Id. at 116. The State contends that portion of Stark pertaining to the defendant's "absolute right" to a jury shuffle impliedly overruled Fontenot since the record revealed the State had previously requested and received a jury shuffle.

Recently, we reaffirmed the principle of Fontenot in Jones v. State, 833 S.W.2d 146 (Tex.Cr.App.1992), and distinguished our decision in Stark. In Jones, the State requested that the venire be shuffled and the trial judge granted the State's request. At the conclusion of the State's shuffle, the defendant requested a second shuffle which the trial judge denied. The court of appeals held the trial judge erred by denying the defendant's requested shuffle and reversed. On the State's petition for discretionary review, we held:

Appellant argues that this Court's opinion in Stark (Citation omitted.), stands for the proposition that the defendant has the absolute right, upon timely motion, to reshuffle the panel after the State has already shuffled. We disagree with appellant's interpretation of Stark. The primary import of Stark was to decry the peculiar method used in that case to shuffle the jury panel, at the State's request, outside the courtroom without affording the defendant the opportunity to either view the panel prior to the shuffle or himself shuffle. (Footnote omitted.) We do not construe Stark as giving a defendant the right, in all cases and under any circumstances, to reshuffle after the State has requested and obtained a shuffle under Article 35.11. ⁷

Indeed, this Court has recently indicated that Article 35.11 is satisfied upon a shuffling of the panel at the request of either the State or the defendant:

In interpreting Article 35.11, we have determined that compliance with that statute is had when counsel for either the State or the defendant is allowed the opportunity to view the venire seated in the courtroom in proper sequence and is thereafter allowed an opportunity to exercise his or her option to have the names shuffled.

Davis v. State, 782 S.W.2d 211 (Tex.Cr.App.1989)....

In sum, we reiterate that Article 35.11 does provide that a defendant is guaranteed that the jury panel will be shuffled once, at either his request or the State's. It does not mandate, however, that a defendant be allowed to reshuffle the panel after the State has caused the panel to be shuffled, absent some misconduct in the State's shuffle as was evident in Stark. Thus, we hold that there is no "absolute right" to shuffle the jury panel in circumstances such as those extant in this case, where appellant had the opportunity to view the original panel, declined to exercise his right to shuffle, and the shuffle at the State's request was done in the courtroom.

Jones, 833 S.W.2d at 148-149.

In light of the foregoing cases, we hold that, absent a showing of misconduct, only one shuffle is authorized under art. 35.11. ⁸ See, Contreras v. State, 733 S.W.2d 646, 648 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1987). Using this reasoning, the trial judge in Jones correctly denied the defendant's request for a shuffle of the venire, and the trial judge in the instant case erred by granting the State's request for a second shuffle. ⁹

C.

Finally, the State contends that even if the trial judge erred in granting the second shuffle, a harm analysis is appropriate under Tex.R.App.P. 81(b)(2). State's amended brief, pgs. 98-99.

In Fontenot we held "no injury need be shown in order to warrant a reversal." Fontenot, 379 S.W.2d at 335. Our recent decision in Cooks v. State, 844 S.W.2d 697 (Tex.Cr.App.1992), reaffirmed this rule. Cooks argued our holding in Fontenot, requiring no showing of harm, should be applied to all errors in the jury selection process. Although we declined to extend our holding in Fontenot, we recognized its continued viability in cases involving requests for a jury shuffle. Id. at 726-27. ¹⁰

Our retention of the policy established in Fontenot is sound. 1 Branch's 2nd Ed., § 543 provides:

Any infringement of the jury law will require a reversal without reference to whether injury to the defendant is shown. When the statute prescribes the method of procedure and compliance therewith is promptly and timely demanded, the trial court is not authorized to permit infringements of the jury law.

The rationale for this rule is perhaps best explained in an early opinion of this Court, Adams v. State, 50 Tex.Crim. 586, 99 S.W. 1015 (Tex.Cr.App.1907):

... It is no answer to this requirement of the statute to urge that no injury is shown; that appellant, by the means adopted, was furnished with a fair and impartial jury. We might go further, and say, according to this reasoning, the court might adopt any method outside of the statute which might secure a fair and impartial jury. The law has ordained a tribunal for the trial of criminal cases, and has provided the method of selecting a jury, and there is no authority to resort to any other method, and it is not incumbent on appellant to show that he suffered injury by the failure of the court to follow the statutory method.

Id., 99 S.W. at 1016. See also, Moore v. State, 132 Tex.Crim. 403, 105 S.W.2d 250, 251 (1937).

Furthermore, we have recognized that not all violations of mandatory statutes are subject to a harm analysis under Rule 81(b)(2). Specifically, we noted that violations of art. 35.11 were not subject to such an analysis in Roberts v. State, 784 S.W.2d 430, 435 (Tex.Cr.App.1990):

... Violation of some procedural provisions, "mandatory" in nature, was held by the Court to justify reversal of the conviction without an inquiry into harmfulness, vel non, of the error. A ready example is violation of Article 35.11, V.A.C.C.P., the jury shuffle statute.

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In cases involving breach of many procedural statutes the record will contain no concrete data from which an appellate court can meaningfully gauge that the error did or did not...