Clinard v. State

ROBERTS, Judge,

dissenting.

The majority reverses this conviction because the trial court admitted in evidence a police officer’s testimony that the appellant refused an offer to take a blood test. Although I agree that the alleged error was properly preserved, see Saunders v. State, 172 Tex.Cr.R. 17, 353 S.W.2d 419 (1962), I cannot agree that the admission of the testimony was error. I would affirm.

I would hold that neither the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, nor Article I, Section 10, of the Texas Constitution, nor Article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits the admission of such evidence. See my dissenting opinion in Dudley v. State, 548 S.W.2d 706 (Tex.Cr.App.1977), decided this day.

The judgment should be affirmed.

ODOM, J., joins in this dissent.