Opinion

Montanez v. State

  • 195 S.W.3d 101
  • 2006 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 830
  • 2006 WL 1083917
Court
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
Filed
Apr 26, 2006
Status
Published
Author
Womack
On the bench
Keasler, Price, Hervey, Holcomb, Cochran, Keller, Meyers, Womack, Johnson
Cited by
918 cases

holding that the reviewing court must decide whether, "after affording almost total deference to the trial court's determination of historical facts that are supported by the record, the trial court abused its discretion by finding that the State proved by clear and convincing evidence" that a defendant voluntarily consented to a search

How later courts described this case

  • holding that the reviewing court must decide whether, "after affording almost total deference to the trial court's determination of historical facts that are supported by the record, the trial court abused its discretion by finding that the State proved by clear and convincing evidence" that a defendant voluntarily consented to a search
  • explaining that a clearly erroneous standard, which requires the appeals court to give deference to the trier of fact, applies to the review df a ruling from a suppression hearing that addressed whether the defendant voluntarily consented to the search in a case that included a video recording that captured what occurred in the stop
  • holding that “the deferential standard of review in Guzman [v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997),] applies to a trial court’s determination of historical facts when that determination is based on a videotape recording admitted into evidence at a suppression hearing”
  • holding that “the deferential standard of review in Guzman [v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

WOMACK, J.,

filed a dissenting opinion.

The Court decides, “on [its] own initiative, [to] review whether the court of appeals correctly decided that an implied adverse ruling on Montanez’s motion to suppress was made by the trial court.” Ante, at 104.

I believe that the Court should give the parties notice of this decision and an opportunity to brief the issue. That “the State briefed and Montanez had an opportunity to brief in the court of appeals” (ibid.) is not satisfactory. First, the issue in the Court of Appeals was whether the trial court’s ruling was erroneous, while the issue in this court is the Court of Appeals’ decision. It could not have been briefed before the Court of Appeals rendered its decision.

More important is the principle, which is a rudiment of due process, that a party should have notice that a court will consider an issue and an opportunity to be heard.

I respectfully dissent to the decision of the issue without notice.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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