Case Name: KNOX v. STATE
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1928-06-20
Citations: 8 S.W.2d 165
Docket Number: No. 11900
Parties: KNOX v. STATE.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 8
Pages: 165–165

Head Matter:
KNOX v. STATE.
(No. 11900.)
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
June 20, 1928.
Fitzgerald & Grundy, of Memphis, for appellant.
A. A. Dawson, State’s Atty., of Austin, for the State.

Opinion:
MORROW, P. J.
The offense is drunkenness in a public place; punishment fixed at a fine of $50.
The appellant was not represented by counsel upon the trial. In arguing his ease, he attempted to narrate the facts. He was stopped by the court upon objection by state's counsel that he was stating facts not in evidence. In his argument, counsel for the state, criticizing the effort of the appellant to relate the facts, stated to the jury that "the defendant did not have the nerve to take the oath as a witness before this jury and tell you anything." The court, having sustained the objection of state's counsel, thereby prevented the appellant from relating his version of the facts, and excluded from the consideration of the jury such facts as he had related. We think the argument of state's counsel containing the statement quoted is deemed a transgression of the statute forbidding comment upon the failure of the accused to testify. See article 710, C. C. P. 1925.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.