Case ID: sw_244/html/0146-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HAWKINS, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

PHILLIPS v. STATE.
    (No. 6847.)
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    Oct. 11, 1922.)
    Constitutional law <§=>197 — Law as to testimony of accomplices held sx post facto as to previous offenses.
    The act of the Thirty-Seventh Legislature (Vernon’s Pen. Code Supp. 1922, art. 588%a3) declaring a purchaser of liquor no longer an accomplice is an ex post facto law, as it applies to offenses committed prior to its enactment; henee defendant, in a prosecution for selling liquor, was entitled.to a directed verdict of not guilty where the only witnesses against him were two joint purchasers.
    Appeal from District Court, Angelina County ; L. D. Guinn, Judge.
    Dennis Phillips was convicted of selling intoxicating liquor, and he appeals.
    Reversed and remanded.
    E. J. Conn and Fairchild & Redditt, all of Lufkin, for appellant.
   HAWKINS, J.

Conviction is for selling intoxicating liquor. Punishment, three years in the penitentiary.

The sale upon which the prosecution is based occurred prior to the amendment of the law by the Thirty-Seventh Legislature, when the purchaser was an accomplice. The trial, however, was had after the amendment became effective, under, which the purchaser is no longer an accomplice. The only two witnesses testifying for the state were joint purchasers. Appellant contends that the law as it existed when the offense was committed controls, and that, in the absence of corroborative testimony, the trial judge should have given the requested instruction to return a verdict of “not guilty.” Plachy v. State (Tex. Cr. App.) 239 S. W. 979, holds that the amendment by the Thirty-Seventh Legislature is an es post facto law as it applies to offenses committed prior to its enactment, and is direct authority for appellant’s contention. It, however, had not been decided when the instant ease was tried.

The judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded.