And speaking of bad decisions, it only took about 10 years for the CCA to overrule a really bad decision in Nunfio (can you be fair and impartial if the victim of a brutal rape was a nun?). For a summary, see:

http://www5.law.com/lawcom/displayid.cfm?statename=TX&docnum=134127&table=news&flag=full

But that was a different court than today's.

Okay, I haven't been reading the forum lately, but ... "Nuns are nice?"

[No Dan, I didn't want to walk down the hall. Just wanted the rest of you to see that even John gets some flak occasionally]

I think you guys are suffering from having seen too much of Lavonne's fighting nun!

Hey, don't knock Lavonne the Fighting Nun. She just got 99 years TDCJ on a juvenile certified on an agg. robbery case!
But has anyone noticed that there were 198 hits on this topic and only 2, now 3 replies. Clearly, the name aroused curiosity. It's certainly peaked my interest more than "42.12 Dilemma," or "Technical Violations."

For more on Lavonne's case, go to:

http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/saturday/metro_state_1.html

Hey don't forget! That's the PREGNANT fighting nun!

What with all the news out of Boston and elsewhere lately, must we really continue to blight the Catholics????

I'll be the appellate nerdo here and get back to the original point that Nunfio has finally been overruled. One of the many things that irked me about that case when it came down was the holding that the denial of a "proper" defense question is atomatically reversible error, with no harm analysis. So the fact that the victim's status as a nun never came up at trial didn't figure into the CCA's decision at all. Which is like reversing because a confession was illegally obtained when the confession was never introduced in evidence.

We have a PDR that's been granted (Rios)in which we're attacking that dumb old notion that the right to ask questions going to the intelligent use of peremptory challenges implicates the Texas constitutional right to counsel, the denial of which requires austomatic reversal without a harm inquiry. So maybe the rest of noxious Nunfio will soon be gone as well.

Matthew

Several judges have asked how they should deal with Nunfio type questions. My suggestion is to ask the lawyer to rephrase the question. Any other ideas?