Free Exercise Challenge To Animal Cruelty Law Not Preserved For Appeal

In Myers v. State of Texas, (TX App., July 21, 2011), a Texas state appeals court ruled that defendant in an animal cruelty case had failed to preserve for review on appeal his claim that the state's animal cruelty statute violated the free exercise of his religious beliefs. At trial, defendant urged the jury to consider his religious beliefs, but never argued to the court or requested a ruling on the constitutionality of applying the statute to him.