Case Name: Joseph Leroy HIGNETT, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1959-10-21
Citations: 328 S.W.2d 300
Docket Number: No. 30915
Parties: Joseph Leroy HIGNETT, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 328
Pages: 300–300

Head Matter:
Joseph Leroy HIGNETT, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee.
No. 30915.
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
Oct. 21, 1959.
Leland D. Sutton, Abilene, for appellant.
Leon B. Douglas, State’s Atty., Austin, for the State.

Opinion:
MORRISON, Presiding Judge.
The offense is assault with intent to murder ; the punishment, 10 years.
Our able State's Attorney confesses error, and we agree. The state, in the presence of the jury, called the appellant's wife as a witness against him, thereby forcing the appellant to object to her testimony on the grounds that she was his wife. Later in the trial, the State propounded further questions to other witnesses as to what the appellant's wife had told them concerning the assault and again forced the appellant to object.
Recently, in Caldwell v. State, 162 Tex.Cr.R. 486, 287 S.W.2d 176, we had occasion to reverse a conviction for the same error here presented, and there referred to Judge Martin's statement of the rule and the reason supporting it in his able opinion in Lynn v. State, 113 Tex.Cr.R. 637, 21 S.W.2d 1042.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.