Donald Aaron Smith, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the convictions and remanded the case, holding that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to allow the defendant to ask three of his proposed voir dire questions. The court affirmed the trial court's restriction on a broad question about jurors' thoughts on the insanity defense, but required that questions about materials read, pretrial publicity, and punishment philosophy be permitted. The decision emphasizes the defendant's right to intelligently exercise peremptory challenges.