Curry v. State

• Decision Date: 20 April 1971
• Docket Number: No. 43602,43602
• Parties: Robert CURRY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 455

468 S.W.2d 455

Robert CURRY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 43602.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

April 20, 1971.

Rehearing Denied June 9, 1971.

Walter S. Smith, Jr., G. Stanley Rentz, Waco, for appellant.

Martin D. Eichelberger, Dist. Atty., Frank M. Fitzpatrick, Jr., Kenneth H. Crow and James R. Barlow, Asst. Dist. Attys., Waco, and Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

OPINION

MORRISON, Judge.

The offense is murder with malice; the punishment, death.

Appellant's first seven grounds of error relate to the court's charge to the jury on the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. All of appellant's objections to the charge, which are included in the statement of facts, were made orally. Such objections are not sufficient to preserve error for review by this Court. See Arts. 36.14 and 36.19, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P., and Seefurth v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 422 S.W.2d 931. However, in light of the penalty assessed in this case, we will briefly discuss each of these contentions.

Appellant's first and second contentions are that the court shifted the burden of proof to the defendant in the charge on accident, which charge reads as follows (emphasis added):

'You are instructed that no act done by accident is an offense, therefore, If you find from the evidence that the Deceased, Ronald Curry died from injuries received by him when his head accidently struck the concrete porch or steps when he fell, if he did so fall, then the defendant would not be guilty as charged in the indictment.'

Immediately following this instruction, although on the next page, the court further charged:

'In all criminal cases the burden of proof is on the State. The Defendant is presumed innocent until proved guilty by competent evidence beyond a reasonable doubt; and if you have a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the Defendant in this case, then you shall return a verdict of not guilty.'

In view of the fact that the court, immediately following the charge on accident, gave the general charge on the burden of proof, we cannot see how appellant was prejudiced by the court's failure to state the burden in the charge on accident. Compare Turner v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 371 S.W.2d 46. ¹

Appellant's third contention is that the court erred in failing to charge that the deceased child's mother, Celestine Brown, was an accomplice witness as a matter of law; alternatively, in ground of error number four, he contends that the court should have submitted to the jury the question of fact of whether or not Mrs. Brown was an accomplice witness.

Mrs. Brown was the only witness to testify to any act of violence committed by appellant upon the deceased child. She and her child lived with appellant; they were completely dominated by him. The fact that she made no report of his brutalizing the child could not make her an accessory, so as to become an accomplice witness, as she was not shown to have been questioned by officers and then to have given false answers. Littles v. State, 111 Tex.Cr.R. 500, 14 S.W.2d 853; The Law of Principals, Accomplices and Accessories Under the Texas Statutes, 1 V.A.P.C. XIII (1952) at XXV--XXVII. Furthermore, there is no evidence to show that Mrs. Brown in any way caused the death of her child or aided and encouraged appellant to kill her child.

Appellant's fifth, sixth and seventh contentions are that the court erred in failing to charge the jury on the law of negligent homicide. Such issue was not raised by any of the evidence in this case.

Appellant's first seven grounds of error are overruled.

Appellant's eighth ground of error is that the court committed fundamental error in submitting, in addition to a form recommending probation, only the following verdict forms at the punishment stage:

'We, the jury, having found the defendant, ROBERT CURRY, guilty of the offense of murder with malice aforethought, assess his punishment therefor at confinement in the state penitentiary for a term of _ _ years.

_ _y,

Foreman'

'We, the jury, having found the defendant, ROBERT CURRY, guilty of the offense of murder with malice aforethought, assess his punishment therefor at death.

_ _y,

Foreman'

No objection was made to the verdict forms submitted by the court.

Although the trial court should have submitted a form which provided for the assessment of life imprisonment, the jury could have used the form providing for a term of years in order to assess a life sentence. Additionally, they could have written their own form. This Court has held that, when no objection was interposed to such submission, failure of the court to submit all possible alternatives was not reversible error. Art. 36.19, supra; Crayton v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 324, 314 S.W.2d 87; Long v. State, 128 Tex.Cr.R 235, 79 S.W.2d 1088. The trial court properly charged the jury that they could assess a punishment of life imprisonment absent a showing to the contrary, we must assume that the jury followed that charge. As this Court said in Long v. State, supra, 'We must accord to juries intelligence and reason until the contrary is shown by some action or deed set out in some fact showing.'

Appellant's ninth ground of error is that the court erred in appointing to represent him two members of the bar who were inexperienced in the trial of capital felonies. The record reflects that one of appellant's trial attorneys had been practicing law for about ten months at the time of the trial, and that the other trial counsel had been in the practice of law for about one and one-half years at the time of the trial. Although it is a good practice for trial courts to appoint more experienced attorneys in capital cases, the trial court cautiously appointed two attorneys, instead of just one attorney, to represent appellant. After an examination of the entire record in this cause, we have concluded that appellant's trial counsel effectively represented him. Davis v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 463 S.W.2d 434.

The tenth, eleventh and twelfth grounds of error allege jury misconduct. The Amended Motion for New Trial had attached thereto the affidavits of two members of the jury, signed on September 17, 1969. At the hearing on the motion, the State offered two affidavits from each of these two jurors, which were signed on September 18, 1969.

The two affidavits offered by appellant were identical and said that one of the jurors stated in the presence of the other jurors that 'if the Defendant received either a life sentence or 99 years, he would be free on parole. This was discussed by the jury and we agreed that because the Defendant would be free on parole as stated, that that was too light a sentence.'

In addition to alleging that the previous affidavits had been obtained through trickery, the State's affidavits clarified the allegations in the appellant's affidavits. Both of the jurors alleged coercion in signing the first affidavits and stated that the first affidavits were not entirely accurate. They then went on to say that the question of parole was mentioned briefly; that a note was thereupon sent to the court from their foreman asking whether or not the defendant could receive some sentence without parole; that the court stated that he could not answer the question; and that, after the jury received the court's reply, there was no further discussion about parole. One juror's affidavit stated, 'I voted for the death penalty verdict because I thought it was the proper one under the evidence.' The other juror's affidavit stated, 'We were not bound by any agreement among us as to what Robert Curry might or might not get in the future * * *'

The affidavits submitted by the State indicate that the first affidavit was originally brought to one juror with the allegation that one of the jurors stated that the defendant would get parole in eight to twelve years and that, after she refused to sign the affidavit in that form, it was changed to the one quoted above. The second juror received the first affidavit one-half hour later, and, at that time, it was in the form quoted above.

Neither of the two jurors testified at the hearing, as the trial court refused to allow appellant to call them to the stand. The court's ruling was based on his finding that the first affidavits had been obtained through chicanery and were, therefore, involuntary and inadmissible.

In Baltazar v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 373 S.W.2d 753, upon which appellant relies there was a positive assertion of what would happen to the accused, which statement was untrue and harmful to the accused. In the case at bar, there was an assertion that appellant would, at some vague and indefinite time in the future, be paroled. Such does not constitute reversible error. Salcido v. State, 167 Tex.Cr.R. 173, 319 S.W.2d 329. The trial court properly decided from the affidavits that no jury misconduct had been shown.

In his thirteenth and fourteenth grounds of error appellant contends that the trial court erred in his preliminary instructions and in his charge on guilt-innocence by instructing the jury that the maximum punishment for murder without malice was five years. At neither juncture were objections made. Appellant cites us to no authority holding that such an instruction is reversible error. Furthermore, under the facts in this case, we cannot see how appellant was harmed thereby.

The fifteenth ground of error is that Art. 1257, Vernon's Ann.P.C., which provides that one of the alternative punishments for murder shall be the death penalty, is unconstitutional in that it constitutes cruel and unusual...