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Turner v StateOctober 22, 2003No. PD-1932-01 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS NO. 1932-01 MARCUS TURNER, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS ON STATES PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW FROM THE SECOND COURT OF APPEALS TARRANT COUNTY Meyers, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which Keller, P.J., Price, Womack, Johnson, Keasler, Hervey, and Holcomb, J.J., joined. Cochran, J., not participating. O P I N I O N A jury convicted appellant Marcus Turner of capital murder and sentenced him to life in prison for his part in a robbery-murder. Tex. Pen. Code §19.03. On appeal, Appellant argued that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during the pretrial plea bargaining process and the Court of Appeals reversed his conviction. Turner v. State, 49 S.W.3d 461 (Tex. App. - Fort Worth 2001). The State petitioned this Court, enumerating four grounds for review. We granted review to address two of those grounds: 1. Does the court of appeals opinion usurp the role of the trial court by insisting that the trial court was required to believe Appellant (and possibly his defense counsel) on the historical fact issue of whether the acceptance deadline had been communicated to Appellant? 2. Did the court of appeals opinion relieve Appellant of his obligation to show prejudice(a) by trampling the trial courts prerogative to make credibility determinations based on witness demeanor, and (b) by ignoring Appellants failure to present evidence that he would have timely accepted the 35-year plea offer had the July acceptance deadline been communicated to him? Having examined the record and briefs and considered the arguments in the case, we have determined that our decision to grant review was improvident. We therefore dismiss the State's petition as improvidently granted. Meyers, J. Delivered: October 22, 2003 Publish This information is made available as a free public service for your personal, non-commercial use. While every effort has been made to provide accurate material at this site, it is provided "as is" and no representations are made that it is free of mistakes or inaccuracies. This file was derived from the text posted on the web site of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, by the automatic operation of conversion software, and may contain errors. Baker's Legal Pages are a public service of Freelance Enterprises, Inc.
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