Ex parte Green (2004)

In Ex parte Green, 159 S.W.3d 925 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004), Judge Johnson, joined by Judge Price, filed a statement dissenting from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' decision to dismiss an application for writ of habeas corpus. Judge Johnson wrote: The prohibition embodied by Rule of Evidence 606(b) sometimes results in improper conduct in the jury room that impermissibly affects the verdict. Here, it was improper speculation about parole. In another case, it may be a juror using personal experience, unrelated to the case at bar, to influence the vote of other jurors, such as a juror who has been burglarized talking about the sense of violation that such victims feel and urging conviction or severe punishment based not on the burglary, but on the juror's own emotional distress in response to a different burglary. We should not invade the jury room for little purpose, but due process demands that there be away to address blatant misconduct. Rule 606(b) bars any examination of the process. A trial cannot be fair if jury deliberations are tainted. .... The inability to challenge jury misconduct is a violation of applicant's right to due process and a fair trial. I respectfully dissent. Id. at 926.