Burke v. Texas (Original)
Annotate this CaseAppellant David Burke was a police officer in Jefferson County. He was indicted for the offense of official oppression, a class A misdemeanor, and the judge moved the case to Bexar County sua sponte. A jury convicted Appellant of the charged offense, and the trial court assessed his punishment at 90 days in jail, probated for one year, and a $350 fine. Appellant appealed, arguing among other things, the trial court's denial of his challenge for cause of a prospective juror after that juror indicated that his past experience with law enforcement would make it difficult for him to be fair and impartial. The Ninth Court of Appeals rejected this claim, finding that the juror's earlier statement that he could follow the law as given to him qualified him as a vacillating juror and that the reviewing court must therefore defer to the trial court. "Because the trial court . . . could reasonably conclude that prospective juror one's declaration did not clearly evince a bias against the law, the trial court was entitled to conclude that prospective juror one could actually follow its instructions . . .." The Court of Criminal Appeals granted appellant's sole ground on petition for discretionary review, claiming that "The Court of Appeals erred in holding that the trial court did not err in denying Appellant's challenge for cause to the prospective juror after his responses left no room for doubt that he could not be a fair and impartial juror given his past experience with law enforcement." Upon review, the Court agreed with Appellant's argument and reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and remanded the case to the trial court for a new trial.
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