Morrow v. State

The hypothetical in Morrow v. State 753 S.W.2d 372 (Tex. Crim. App. 1988) was that a defendant intentionally pulled the trigger of a gun and shot the victim in the leg, and the victim later died of medical complications. 753 S.W.2d at 373. The Court held that, because the faulty hypothetical in that case was given during the State's voir dire, before defense questioning began, prospective jurors were effectively immunized from defense attempts to challenge for cause and at the same time rendered challengeable because the hypothetical instilled in them a bias against the law. Id. at 376. The Court found that, under the circumstances presented, harm was presumed and further found that the hypothetical so distorted voir dire as to deny the defendant due course of law and the effective assistance of counsel in violation of the Texas Constitution. Id. at 376-377.