''Pointer v. Texas'', 380 U.S. 400 (1965), was a decision by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
involving the application of
the right of to confront accusers in state court proceedings. The
Sixth Amendment in the
Bill of Rights
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...
states that, in
criminal prosecutions, the defendant has a right "...to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor..." In this case, a person arrested in Texas for robbery was deprived of the ability to cross-examine a witness when the lower court allowed the introduction of a transcript of that witness's earlier testimony at a preliminary proceeding instead of compelling attendance by the witness at trial.
Prior history
On the night of June 16, 1962 the manager of a
7-Eleven
7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...
in
Harris County,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
was robbed of $375 (currently equivalent to $). The robber fled from the store but the store manager claimed to see him talking to another man at a nearby street intersection. Responding officers found an abandoned automobile with a flat tire and a still-warm engine at the intersection. A
police dog tracked a scent from the car's front seat to the 7-11 store and then across the street, into a wooded area, and then to the front yard of a nearby house. There they found Bob Granville Pointer hiding in the shadow of a tree and arrested him. A search of Pointer recovered $81 in his wallet and $65 in his shoe.
At a preliminary hearing (called in Texas an "examining trial") was held. Examining trials have a prosecutor, defense and take place before a
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
or
district judge. Examining trials require the prosecutor to show the presiding officer that
probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal or the issuing of a search warrant. There is no universally accepted definition or f ...
exists and determines if the accused will be granted bail and on what conditions. If the prosecutor demonstrates evidence supporting probable cause to believe the accused committed the charged act, then the accused is
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...
.
In Pointer's examining trial the chief witness was the store manager, Kenneth W. Phillips. Phillips identified Pointer and testified that he had been robbed by Pointer at gunpoint and feared for his life. According to Article 1408 of the Texas Penal code in operation at the time, robbery with violence or "putting in fear of life or bodily injury" was punishable for terms of confinement of five years to life, no matter the amount. Pointer and co-defendant Lloyd Earl Dillard were not represented by any attorney in the hearing. Dillard asked Phillips a few questions but Pointer did not. The examining trial ended with indictments of both Pointer and Dillard.
After the examining trial, Phillips moved to California and did not return to Texas for Pointer's criminal trial in District Court. The prosecutor introduced the transcript of Phillips' testimony from the examining trial instead. Pointer's attorney objected to the inability to cross-examine Phillips but was overruled. The jury convicted Pointer and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
On appeal to the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a Presiding Judge and eight judges.
Article V of ...
, Pointer's attorney repeated the argument that Phillips' non-appearance deprived Pointer of his right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against him, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. The Texas court held that Pointer could have cross-examined Phillips at the examining trial and chose not to. Considering the responsibility of a layperson like Pointer to carry out such a cross-examination without assistance, it further ruled that examining trials did not require counsel because they preceded indictment.
Decision
Pointer's case was part of a series that defined how the Sixth Amendment applied to defendants in state courts. The Supreme Court took this case to decide if failure to appoint an attorney to represent Pointer at the preliminary hearing unconstitutionally denied him the assistance of counsel as it had then-recently decided in . The Court was also concerned with the deprivation of the right to cross-examine witnesses, as it had referred to in . Earlier in the same term, the Court had defined the minimum rights under the Sixth Amendment as:
Justice
Hugo Black
Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A ...
held that:
*The right of an accused under the Sixth Amendment to confront and cross-examine witnesses against them is a fundamental right
:*This right is essential to a fair trial
:*The Fourteenth Amendment makes this right obligatory on the States
*The introduction of the transcript was a clear denial of the right of confrontation and the statement was made without an adequate opportunity for cross-examination.
Effects of the decision
Pointer's conviction was reversed and returned to Texas for further proceedings.
When Texas revised its Criminal Code, it changed the law on examining trials. It was now explicit that the hearing could proceed only after "...allowing the accused, however, sufficient time to procure counsel." Further, it also said "...the magistrate may appoint counsel to represent an accused in such examining trial only..."
This case was part of the process of
applying rights guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the states. It was later cited by one of the most famous United States Supreme Court cases, .
See also
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 380
This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 380 of the ''United States Reports'':
* '' Udall v. Tallman'',
* '' Singer v. United States'',
* '' Crider v. Zurich Ins. Co.'',
* '' Freedman v. Maryland'',
* '' United S ...
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases
This page serves as an index of lists of United States Supreme Court cases. The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court of the United States.
By Chief Justice
Court historians and other legal scholars consider each Chief J ...
External links
*
375 S.W.2d 293 (Tex. Crim. App. 1963)Lower court opinion
Description of Examining Trials1934 Supplement to the 1928 Complete Texas Statues
{{US6thAmendment
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court
1965 in United States case law
Incorporation case law