Christopher Coffin, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and the admission of former testimony under Tex.R.Cr.Evid. Rule 804(b)(1), finding that the appellant had a similar motive to cross‑examine the psychologist at the juvenile certification hearing as at the punishment phase. The majority held that the trial court did not err in admitting the prior testimony, applying an abuse‑of‑discretion standard. A dissent argued that the purposes of the two hearings differed and that the appellant lacked a similar motive, while a brief concurrence simply joined the majority.