No juror, no conviction

On the criminal-law side of the docket, a baffling situation about the number of empaneled jurors led to reversal of a conviction in Leal v. State because “The record matters”:

At oral argument, the absurdity of this scenario was discussed with both counsel for the state and counsel for the appellant. It defies logic that neither the trial judge, nor the bailiff, nor the court reporter, nor either party noticed throughout the entire trial that the jury box was missing a twelfth juror. Yet, the record demonstrates exactly that. A reasonable assumption is that there must have been twelve jurors. But the State attempted to supplement the record to show the presence of and identity of a twelfth juror. The supplementation was unsuccessful in providing this proof.

No. 05-24-00446-CR (Nov. 19, 2025).