Abron v. State

In Abron v. State, 523 S.W.2d 405 (Tex. Crim. App. 1975), the Court held that the trial court abused its discretion in prohibiting the defendant from asking the venire members whether they would be biased because the defendant was a black man and the victim a white woman. Abron, 523 S.W.2d at 407. The Court explained that this prohibition may have violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment but definitely denied Abron the right to intelligently exercise his peremptory challenges. In that case, the appellant attempted to ask a very specific question: whether the venire members would be biased against Abron because of his race and that of the victim. The question was precisely tailored to get to the heart of an issue relevant to the case.