Today's Opinions - 12/16/09

The CCA handed down a number of published opinions today in the following cases:

AP-75,811, Antonio Lee Williams v. State: The CCA upheld Williams' death sentence over his fifteen points of error. Williams challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, the admission of extraneous offense evidence to which he opened the door, the denial of Batson challenges, the admission of gruesome photographs, and constitutional challenges to the Texas death penalty scheme.

AP-76,059 & AP-76,060, Ex parte Terrence Ladon Broadway: The CCA held that Broadway validly waived his right to appeal even though there was no agreed upon sentence. Unlike a typical situation where a defendant could not know the consequences of his waiver of appeal, here he made a bargain to waive his right to a jury trial (in order to be eligible for the judge to give him deferred) in exchange for his waiver of his right to appeal. Judge Meyers also asked a lot of really interesting questions that he didn't seem to answer. Here's a link to Judge Womack's concurring opinion.

AP-76,141, Ex parte Carrie Denise Lane: The CCA held that Lane's trial attorney was ineffective for allowing testimony about the societal costs of methamphetamine addiction to be admitted and that this deficiency along with failing to request notice for experts prejudiced her during the punishment phase of Lane's trial. Consequently, the CCA granted relief and remanded the case for a new punishment hearing.

PD-0294-08, Ex parte Frank Eugene Watson: The CCA granted rehearing in this case decided in May 2009. They still affirmed, but just clarified that descriptive averments alleged in the indictment on the greater offense should be considered and compared to the statutory elements of the lower offense. However, failure to yield the right of way was still not a lesser-included of intoxication manslaughter as it was alleged in this case.

PD-1366-08, PD-1367-08, PD-1368-08, & PD-1369-08, State v. Joseph Votta a/k/a Joseph Vital: The CCA reversed, reversed, reversed, and reversed the court of appeals. The trial court failed to enter findings of fact and conclusions of law, and without those findings, the court of appeals erroneously held that the trial court had received proper notice of the defendant's request for disposition of his case even though the defendant filed a motion to dismiss under an alias. Moreover, the trial court had no authority to dismiss the defendant's charges of bail jumping when no detainers had been filed for bail jumping. Here's a link to my summary when the issues were granted and here's a link to the oral arguments.

PD-0147-09, Timothy K. Evans v. State: The CCA affirmed the court of appeals holding that two convictions for indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child arising from the same act of molestation violates double jeopardy. Here's a link to my post when the CCA granted discretionary review.

PD-0401-09, Ex parte Amber Lovill: The CCA held that Lovill failed to preserve her claim of selective prosecution. She claimed that probation would not have sought to revoke her for her drug use, among other things, if she were not pregnant. However, at trial she did not challenge the entire revocation proceeding on the basis that she was being selectively prosecuted based upon her gender. She was also untimely in raising this claim. Consequently, she failed to preserve error. Here's a link to the Judge Johnson's concurring opinion. Here's a link to my summary when the CCA granted discretionary review. Here's a link to the oral arguments.