Texas Courts of Appeals

Machado v. State

No. 05-23-00174-CR                       7/5/24

Issue:

Did the trial court err by denying the defendant’s motion for mistrial when the officer witness identified the defendant in front of the jury by saying, “Green dress, shackles on the legs”?

Holding:

Yes. The Court found that the error rose to a level of constitutional error. “[G]iven [the defendant]’s testimony at trial and her statements to officers at the scene of the arrest, the case boiled down to a question of [the defendant]’s credibility, and the jury’s awareness of [the defendant] in shackles, not long before the case was submitted to the jury for decision in the guilt phase, could easily have led the jury to ignore reasonable doubts they may have otherwise had and to tip the scale of justice against her and in the State’s favor when determining guilt.” Read opinion.

Commentary:

It is well-settled law that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit visibly shackling or otherwise physically restraining the defendant during the guilt phase of trial because “[v]isible shackling undermines the presumption of innocence and the related fairness of the factfinding process.”  Deck v. Missouri, 544 U.S. 622, 624, 626-29 (2005); Ex parte Chavez, 560 S.W.3d 191, 201 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018).  Non-visible shackling is not universally prohibited, but it is also not universally authorized simply because the defendant is in custody or because the jurisdiction has a general policy for it.  Rather, a trial court can order even non-visible shackling only when there is a “special need” for it for a particular defendant in a particular proceeding.  Further, to justify the shackling order, the trial court must specifically articulate on the record the reasons why there is a special need to restrain the defendant during the proceedings.  Lastly, the trial court must make every effort (and make those efforts apparent on the record) to prevent the jury from seeing (or hearing) the defendant’s shackles, such as by:  shielding the shackles from view with an object or furniture; cautioning the defendant to remain still to prevent the shackles from clanging or rattling; excusing the jury from the courtroom while the defendant enters or leaves, or moves from counsel table to the witness stand; etc.  For your part, you should remind the trial judge in your cases of these requirements if shackling is an issue, and also admonish your witnesses during trial preparations to avoid referencing the defendant’s shackles while testifying, which unfortunately occurred in this case.