Simpson v. State

COCHRAN, J., filed a statement concurring in the refusal of the petition

in which JOHNSON and HERVEY, JJ., joined.

I agree with the Court’s decision to refuse appellant’s petition for discretionary review because I believe that the error in this case-the trial judge’s display of a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) plaque in the courtroom during appellant’s DWI trial-was neither inherently prejudicial nor actually prejudicial. I write to squarely say what the court of appeals’s majority assumed: This was error.

I

On April 29, 2011, William Pineda was driving a Mustang on Westheimer Road in…