Today's Opinions - 7/1/09

Today the CCA handed down what should be the last of its big hand downs until September. There are still two scheduled dates where PDR dispositions will be handed down this summer (I couldn't pin the clerk down on whether this meant published opinions or not), but it looks like the Court's summer break has started. In other words, after today, it's mostly writs. So today, the CCA issued opinions in the following cases:

AP-74,466, Gregory Russeau v. State: The CCA upheld Russeau's Smith County death sentence after a remand for a new punishment hearing. The Court addressed nineteen issues, and specifically held the evidence was sufficient for a juror to find future danger. Click here for a more detailed summary.

PD-0239-08, Belinda Montoya v. State: A unanimous Court held that the defendant feeling depressed and her moments of impairment because of her long history of drug use that had resulted in terminal end-stage liver disease did not raise a bona fide doubt about the defendant's competence to stand trial. There was no recent severe mental illness, moderate retardation, truly bizarre acts, or anything that indicated the defendant was unable to understand the proceedings. Click here for a more detailed summary.

PD-088808, Thai Ngoc Nguyen v. State: In a 5-4 decision, the CCA held that the trial court should've suppressed the defendant's oral statement claiming ownership of his friend's drugs because the State didn't comply with 38.22. Interestingly, the defendant was charged with hinderance of prosecution not possession, so the statement wasn't really even a confession. Johnson dissented along with Judge Cochra, Judge Holcomb, and . . . Presiding Judge Keller? Click here for a more detailed summary and analysis.

PD-0971-08, Eric Sakil v. State: The CCA held that the trial court did not err in including a voluntary intoxication instruction in the jury charge of the defendant's assault case. The defendant had introduced evidence of his history of drug use and its deleterious effects on his mental health, but he claimed he was not intoxicated on the date of the offense. Click here for a more detailed summary.

PD-1149-08, Ernest Murray Moore v. State: The court of appeals had reversed for the denial of a Batson challenge. Here, the CCA dismissed the State's petition for discretionary review as improvidently granted. Because this case really has nothing to it, I'm not going to do a separate summary post. Instead, click here for a link to my summary when the issue was granted if you're interested.

PD-134008, Johnathan James Moore v. State: The CCA upheld the trial court's turning a defendant's plea into an open plea of guilty when the defendant violated conditions imposed on him by the trial court after his plea and before sentencing. The defendant failed to object to the new conditions and the sentencing hearing, and he never asked to withdraw his plea so error wasn't preserved. Click here for a more detailed summary.

PD-1530-08, Robert Lee Menefee v. State: The CCA held that the evidence was insufficient to support the defendant's guilty plea to possession of cocaine because there was a typo in the plea paperwork that resulted in the absence of the word "possess". Judge Womack concurred. Judge Cochran concurred. Presiding Judge Keller dissented, along with Judges Keasler and Hervey, because the defendant may not have had the right to appeal. Click here for a more detailed summary.

PD-0356-09, Steven Douglas Freeman v. State: Here, the defendant requested a "spoliation" instruction regarding the fact that the videotape of his DWI stop was missing. The court of appeals addressed the issue on state constitutional grounds based on its decision in Pena v. State. Ultimately, the court of appeals held that such an instruction was not required. However, the CCA reversed Pena v. State, and the CCA reversed and remanded Freeman as well for consideration of whether error had even been preserved on the defendant's state constitutional claim. [Here's a link to the court of appeals opinion. And here's a link to my summary of Pena. There's no additional post summarizing the opinion because there's really no need.]