Lonnie Hurd, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the Court of Appeals, holding that the trial court erred by limiting the defendant's cross‑examination to only indirect evidence of the witness's racial bias, thereby violating the defendant's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to confront and cross‑examine. The majority emphasized that a trial court may not restrict a defendant to a single method of proving bias. The court remanded for a new trial consistent with this holding. Justice ONION, dissenting, would have affirmed the conviction, arguing that the trial court's discretion should not be limited.