Rivas v. State

I

The issue in this case is whether the appellant’s objections to the State’s evidence were sufficient to preserve the trial court’s rulings for appeal.

A lucid statement of the requirements for objections was made in this court’s opinion in Lankston v. State, 827 S.W.2d 907, 908-09 (1992).

Our system of justice is characteristically adversarial. One consequence is that many substantive and procedural features, especially most evidentiary rules, are really optional with the parties. Although we may speak of evidence as inadmissible, it is more precise, if not more correct, to say that the rules…