Case ID: sw2d_256/html/0415-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "WOODLEY, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Ex parte PITRUCHA.
    No. 26383.
    Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    April 1, 1953.
    No attorney on appeal.
    George P. Blackburn, State’s Atty., Austin, for the State.
   WOODLEY, Judge.

This is an application for habeas corpus originally presented to this court.

Relator, an inmate of the penitentiary, is serving a sentence of not less than five nor more than fifteen years for rape. The sentence is regular in form.

The attack is upon the judgment upon which the sentence was pronounced. It recites that, upon a jury trial, appellant’s punishment was assessed at fifteen years in the penitentiary, but erroneously provides that relator shall be punished by confinement in the State Penitentiary for a term of “not less than five years nor more than fifteen years”.

The defect in the judgment is such as could have been corrected on appeal under the provisions of art. 847 C.C.P. Judgments containing a similar defect were reformed on appeal in Slusser v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 232 S.W.2d 727, 732, and in Ellison v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 235 S.W.2d 157. The judgment is therefore not void and is not subj ect to attack in this collateral proceeding.

The cases of Ex parte East, 154 Tex.Cr.R. 123, 225 S.W.2d 833, Ex parte Traxler, 147 Tex.Cr.R. 661, 184 S.W.2d 286, and Edwards v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 219 S.W.2d 1022, cited by appellant, are not applicable.

Relator’s punishment was assessed by the jury at a definite term of fifteen years. Art. 698 C.C.P. required the entry of a judgment upon that verdict.

The application for writ of habeas corpus is refused.