Davion Edwards v. State ( 2009 )

Affirmed and Majority and Concurring Opinions filed January 8, 2008

Affirmed and Majority and Concurring Opinions filed January 8, 2009.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals

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NO. 14-07-00477-CR  

____________

DAVION EDWARDS, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 184th District Court  

Harris County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. 1093522  

C O N C U R R I N G   O P I N I O N

The court arrives at the correct conclusion in affirming the trial court=s judgment; however, the majority improperly relies on Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 820, 95 S. Ct. 2525, 2534, 45 L. Ed. 2d 562 (1975), to support its conclusion.  The majority asserts that appellant=s trial counsel=s explanation, A[T]hat=s the route we decided to take,@ strengthens the contention that waiver occurred because a defendant Ais bound by the strategy decisions of his trial counsel.@^[1]      Farretta more accurately pertains to an accused=s constitutional right to proceed at trial without counsel when he voluntarily elects to do so.^[2]     Under Faretta, the state may not force trial counsel upon an accused for representation when the accused insists on conducting his own defense.^[3]     Faretta is not on point on the facts of this case as the majority suggests.  For this reason, I do not join the majority=s analysis but I respectfully concur in the court=s judgment. 

/s/ Kem Thompson Frost

Justice

Panel consists of Justices Anderson and Frost and Senior Justice Hudson.^*     (Anderson, J., Majority.)

Publish C Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b).

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^[1]      See ante at p. 5.

^[2]      Faretta, 422 U.S. at 820, 95 S. Ct. at 2533 (AThe language and spirit of the Sixth Amendment contemplate that counsel, like other defense tools guaranteed by the Amendment, shall be an aid to a willing defendantBnot an organ of the State interposed between an unwilling defendant and his right to defend himself personally.@).

^[3]      Faretta, 422 U.S. at 834, 95 S. Ct. at 2540B41.

^*      Senior Justice J. Harvey Hudson sitting by assignment.