(1) “When a defendant commits a new offense immediately following an illegal search or seizure, does the new offense cease to be an intervening circumstance attenuating taint unless it is violent and/or unforeseen?” (2) “Is an officer in a public place not in a ‘lawful place’ under a plain view a...
(1) “Must a defendant be acquitted if the trial court grants a motion for new trial alleging only that ‘the verdict is contrary to the law and evidence’ and the State does not appeal?” (2) “Was it so certain that a first jury’s ‘not true’ findings survive the granting of a new trial and collater...
“Is a child’s statement to police inadmissible if a magistrate begins the process to determine voluntariness under Tex. Fam. Code § 51.095(f) but never finishes it?”
“The court of appeals erred in finding egregious harm, where the record is clear that the jury understood that a conviction for the lesser included offense of attempted sexual assault would be based on Appellant’s attempted penetration of the victim’s sexual organ by Appellant’s sexual organ.”
“The Second Court of Appeals’s opinion that draws a determinative distinction under article 22.02 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure between the calling of a defendant’s name at a “courtroom door” as opposed to a “courthouse door” conflicts with every ot...
1. “Once a witness learns the meaning of a phrase from other people is the meaning of that phrase thereafter part of the personal knowledge of the witness which the witness can then testify to without violating the Confrontation Clause?” 2. “Are non-hard science expert witnesses required under th...
When two indictments are consolidated for trial under Texas Penal Code § 3.02 and the first indictment is based on a statute that has been challenged via a pretrial habeas application, but the statute underlying the second indictment is not challenged, does consolidation impact the cognizability ...
1. “Does defense-elicited testimony that the victim’s allegations of sexual abuse are lies and the result of manipulation and coaching justify the admission of lay, rebuttal testimony from an officer that the victim’s allegations were credible?” 2. “If the officer’s brief victim-credibility testi...
denotes a petition filled by SPA