Justia Constitutional Law Opinion Summaries

Appellant Jerry Paul Lundgren was arrested for driving while intoxicated. He pled guilty pursuant to a plea-bargain agreement, waived his right to appeal, and was placed on community supervision. About a week later, Appellant was arrested again. After his second arrest, Appellant filed a motion for new trial and a notice of appeal in his first case. Later, the State filed a motion to revoke Appellant's community supervision, and the trial court did so. Appellant argued that his filing of a timely notice of appeal and motion for new trial retroactively stayed the commencement of his community supervision; therefore, the court of appeals erred when it upheld the trial court's ruling. Because the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded under these facts that Appellant's filing of a timely and effective motion for new trial retroactively stayed the commencement of his community supervision until it was overruled by operation of law, the Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and remanded this case for further proceedings. View "Lundgren v. Texas" on Justia Law

Appellant Bobby Canida was convicted by a jury of manufacturing methamphetamine in an amount of more than one gram but less than four grams. He was sentenced by the court to eighty years' imprisonment after pleading true to the two prior convictions in the State's enhancement paragraph. Appellant appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. The court of appeals agreed, finding the evidence legally insufficient to demonstrate that he manufactured more than one gram of methamphetamine and entered a judgment of acquittal. The Court of Criminal Appeals granted the State's petition for discretionary review to determine whether the court of appeals should have reformed the conviction to the lesser-included offense of attempted manufacturing rather than rendering a verdict of acquittal. The State filed a petition for discretionary review, arguing that the court of appeals should have reformed the judgment to a conviction on a lesser-included offense rather than entering an acquittal. The State based its argument on the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision in "Bowen v. Texas," (374 S.W.3d 427 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012)), which held that a reformation of a conviction rather than an acquittal was the proper remedy. The State contended the evidence in this case was sufficient to prove the lesser-included offense of attempted manufacturing of methamphetamine, he conviction to attempt, and that the case should have then been remanded to the trial court for a new hearing on punishment. On April 2, 2014, the Court of Criminal Appeals rendered its opinion in "Thornton v. Texas," (425 S.W.3d 289 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014)), which clarified the holding of Bowen. Because it was decided so recently, neither the State, the appellant, nor the court of appeals had the benefit of the Thornton decision. Therefore, the case was remanded to the court of appeals to consider the issue in light of Thornton. View "Canida v. Texas" on Justia Law

In his petition for discretionary review, appellant Atha Dobbs challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction for resisting arrest with a deadly weapon after he was convicted by a jury. During an attempt by police officers to arrest him at his home, appellant exhibited a firearm, refused to put the weapon down when ordered to do so, and expressed his intent to use the firearm to shoot himself, but never threatened to use the weapon against the officers. Because the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that no rational juror could have found that appellant's conduct constituted a use of force against a peace officer as required by the resisting-arrest statute, the Court held that the evidence was insufficient to sustain appellant's conviction. View "Dobbs v. Texas" on Justia Law

Appellant was convicted by a jury of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. At trial, appellant sought to cross-examine two State's witnesses for bias by informing the jury of the specific felony charges (and concomitant ranges of punishment) the witness then faced in Harris County. However, the trial court limited his cross-examination to exposing the fact that the witnesses stood accused only of certain unspecified "felonies." On appeal, the appellate court rejected appellant's claim that the trial court's ruling violated his right under the Confrontation Clause to effectively cross-examine adverse witnesses and affirmed the conviction. In his petition for discretionary review, appellant urges the Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse the court of appeals on the ground that "[m]erely informing the jury that the State's witnesses had pending felony indictments is insufficient to accomplish what the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation intends[.]" Finding no reversible error, the Court affirmed. View "Johnson v. Texas" on Justia Law

Appellant Nilda Rodriguez was charged with felony murder for the death of her two-month-old son. She was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Appellant appealed, initially challenging the validity of the indictment. The court of appeals, however, determined that she had not preserved this issue for appellate review. Instead, the court of appeals requested supplemental briefing on whether it should analyze the sufficiency of the evidence to prove that Appellant committed "an act clearly dangerous to human life in the course of committing the felony of injury to a child." Concluding that the jury could have reasonably inferred that Appellant committed acts that were clearly dangerous to human life in the process of starving her son, the court of appeals held the evidence to be legally sufficient to support the conviction. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded there was no evidence presented in this case that Appellant committed any affirmative "act" in the starvation of her child. The evidence showed only her omissions caused the infant's death, rather than any act clearly dangerous to human life, as required by the statute. Therefore, the evidence was insufficient to support Appellant's felony murder conviction and it must be overturned. However, because the jury necessarily found Appellant guilty of the underlying felony of injury to a child and the evidence is sufficient to support this finding of guilt, the judgment was remanded to be reformed to reflect this. View "Rodriguez v. Texas" on Justia Law

Appellant was convicted in 2012 of capital murder, specifically the intentional murder of Nancy Weatherly in the course of committing or attempting to commit burglary or robbery. Based upon the jury's answers to special issues (set forth in Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 37.071, sections 2(b) and 2(e)), the trial judge sentenced appellant to death. Appellant raised eighteen points of error in this automatic appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeals found all to be without merit and affirmed the trial court's judgment and sentence of death. View "Soliz v. Texas" on Justia Law

Appellant Mark Fleming was charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault. He filed a motion to quash the indictment on the basis that the aggravated sexual assault statute was unconstitutional for failing to require the State to prove that he had a culpable mental state related to the victim's age and for failing to recognize an affirmative defense based on the defendant's reasonable belief that the victim was 17 years of age or older. The trial court denied the motion. Appellant entered a plea of "no contest," filed an application for community supervision, and invoked his right to have the jury determine punishment. On the second day of testimony, one of the jurors informed the court that his son had dated the victim. In order to avoid a mistrial, the State and Appellant entered into a plea agreement for a ten-year probated sentence. Appellant appealed the trial court's denial of his motion to quash. The court of appeals overruled Appellant's federal constitutional claims and affirmed the trial court's judgment. We remanded the case to the court of appeals to consider Appellant's state constitutional claims, and the court of appeals again affirmed the trial court. Appellant filed a petition for discretionary review, which the Court of Criminal Appeals granted to consider whether Penal Code Section 22.021 is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Due Course of Law provision of the Texas Constitution because it failed to require the State to prove that the defendant had a culpable mental state regarding the alleged victim's age, and failed to recognize an affirmative defense based on the defendant's reasonable belief that the alleged victim was 17 years of age or older. Finding the statute constitutional, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the court of appeals. View "Fleming v. Texas" on Justia Law

A jury convicted appellant Juan Guerra of the offense of unlawful use of a criminal instrument with the intent to commit the offense of aggravated kidnapping or aggravated sexual assault and assessed punishment of twenty years' confinement. The jury also found that appellant personally used or exhibited a deadly weapon, specifically a firearm, during the commission of the offense. On direct appeal, appellant claimed that the trial court erred when it denied his motions to suppress evidence that was obtained from the initial stop of his vehicle and his subsequent detention. The court of appeals overruled that claim and ultimately affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Finding no reversible error, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. View "Guerra v. Texas" on Justia Law

Although applicant Frank Navarijo provided some new evidence in support of his claim that he was actually innocent of the offense of aggravated sexual assault of a child, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that he failed to meet this standard because his new exculpatory evidence, which came in the form of a recantation from the complainant some thirteen years after his conviction, did not unquestionably establish his innocence when that evidence was considered in light of other incriminating evidence in the record. Though the habeas court in this case determined that the complainant's recantation testimony was more credible than her trial testimony and recommended granting relief on that basis, the Court disagreed with the habeas court's assessment that the matter of a recanting witness's credibility is the sole deciding factor in an actual-innocence case, and further disagreed with its related determination that applicant has unquestionably established his innocence under "Ex parte Elizondo," 947 S.W.2d 202, 206, 209 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996). View "Ex parte Frank Navarijo" on Justia Law

In November 2011, a jury convicted appellant James Garza of capital murder for his involvement in the stabbing death of the complainant for the purpose of stealing the complainant's car. The State waived the death penalty because appellant was a juvenile at the time of the murder. Immediately upon conviction, appellant was sentenced to life without parole. No sentencing hearing was conducted, and "[n]o objection was voiced to the procedure employed or to the imposition of the sentence imposed." On appeal, appellant challenged the imposition of his life-without-parole sentence arguing that, because he was a juvenile, the sentence violated his Eighth Amendment rights as defined by the United States Supreme Court's decision in "Miller v. Alabama." The Court of Appeals refused to review his claim and held that, by failing to lodge an objection in the trial court, appellant forfeited this claim on appeal. Upon review of the matter, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the court of appeals' decision because it conflicted with the Court's subsequently delivered opinion in "Ex parte Maxwell." View "Garza v. Texas" on Justia Law