Defendant’s Brief in Support of Motion to Submit Jury Questionnaire

DEFENDANT’S BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO SUBMIT JURY QUESTIONNAIRE

TO THE HONORABLE JUDGE OF SAID COURT:

COMES NOW, the Defendant, __________________, by and through his attorney of record, and submits this, his Brief in Support of Motion to Submit Jury Questionnaire; and in support thereof would show the Honorable Court the following:

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The Defendant was indicted in the instant case on February 24, 2006 for the offense of murder. The indictment also alleges for enhancement purposes that the Defendant has been previously convicted of the offense of indecency with a child. The Defendant faces a punishment range of from not less than 15 or more than 99 years or life if convicted in this case.

This case will have to be tried to a jury. The case is currently set for trial on May 8, 2006. The trial court during pretrial hearings has made it known that there will be a time limit of one hour per side for voir dire purposes.

The trial of this case will involve many complex legal issues. Each of these complex legal issues will require extensive questioning of the venire to discover their views on the issue. Counsel for Defendant will be required to ask many follow-up questions of individual veniremen as to each of these issues.

In light of the anticipated length of voir dire in this case, the Defendant requests to submit to the venire a questionnaire that will gather much of the information from the venire that would otherwise have to be gathered during the actual voir dire. The use of a questionnaire will greatly reduce the length of the voir dire process.

AUTHORITIES AND ARGUMENT

The Defendant recognizes that the control of voir dire examination is within the sound discretion of the trial court. Rios v. State, 122 S.W.3d 194(Tex.Cr.App. 2003).

Counsel for Defendant does not seek to needlessly prolong the voir dire, only seeks to ask proper questions of the venire and believes that certain questions will have to be asked of individual members of the venire. See Ratliff v. State, 690 S.W.2d 597 (Tex.Cr.App. 1985); Dhillon v. State, 138 S.W.3d 583 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2004, no pet.). Much of the questioning can be accomplished through the use of a questionnaire.

Texas courts have recognized that written questionnaires are often helpful tools in conducting voir dire. Garza v. State, 7 S.W.3d 164 (Tex.Cr.App. 1999). They have recognized that a questionnaire serves as an efficient vehicle for collecting demographic...