Case Name: Peter Green v. The State
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1880
Citations: 8 Tex. Ct. App. 71
Docket Number: 
Parties: Peter Green v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Court of Appeals Reports
Volume: 8
Pages: 71–75

Head Matter:
Peter Green v. The State.
Evidence — Hearsay. —Declarations of the deceased, though made after and in explanation of the infliction of the fatal injury, but not concomitant therewith, nor made under a sense of impending death, are mere hearsay, and are not competent evidence either for the prosecution or the defence.
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING.
2. Conviction for a Minor Degree. — The common-law rule that a conviction for misdemeanor could not be had on an indictment for felony has long been discarded in this State, and the converse principle authorizing a conviction for a minor degree of the offence charged in the indictment has been extended by the Revised Codes beyond the limits originally prescribed.
2. Same—Murder — Assaults. —Art. 714 of the Revised Code of Procedure declares that murder includes all the lesser degrees of culpable homicide, and also an assault with intent to commit murder, and that an assault with intent to commit murder includes all assaults of an inferior degree. Held, that a conviction for aggravated assault and battery maybe had under an indictment for murder.
8. Same.—The Revised Penal Code, art. 614, provides that if death be unintentionally inflicted" under the influence of sudden passion and by means ■■ not calculated to kill, the inflicter “may be prosecuted for and convicted of any grade of assault and battery.” Held, that this provision does not intend or imply that there must first be a prosecution and acquittal for the homicide, and afterwards a prosecution for some grade of assault and battery. The conviction for assault and battery may be had upon an indictment and trial for the homicide.
Appeal from the District Court of Houston. Tried below before the Hon. W. D. Wood.
The indictment charged the appellant and Milton Rhodes with the murder of Nathan Rhodes. On the separate trial of the appellant, the jury found him guilty of aggravated assault and battery, and assessed his punishment at a fine of $100.
The evidence shows that the deceased forced an unprovoked difficulty on the parties indicted, and in the course of it received a blow on the head with a stick, resulting iii death from lock-jaw after a lapse of some three weeks. Medical witnesses thought that the lock-jaw was partly imputable to the imprudence of the deceased.
W. B. Wall, Cooper & Cooper, and Harcourt & Harcourt, for the appellant.
Thomas Ball, Assistant Attorney-General, for the State.

Opinion:
Clark, J.
The declarations of the deceased, made an hour or two subsequent to the affray, and after he had reached town in quest of medical attention, were not made evidently under a sense of approaching death, nor were they concom.itant with the principal act. They were clearly narrative of a past occurrence, and came within the well-defined and well-understood rule of hearsay, and were inadmissible either for the prosecution or the defence. Conn v. Dene more, 12 Allen, 535. Cases which seemingly hold a contrary doctrine, many of which are referred to by counsel in their able brief, all rest upon the distinction that such declarations are admissible when connected by circumstances in evidence with the principal act. No such connection is shown to exist in this case. Boothe v. The State, 4 Texas Ct. App. 202.
With regard to the justification of the appellant for his participation in the act resulting in death, it suffices to say that the issue of self-defence was clearly submitted to the jury in appropriate instructions, and they have found against the appellant upon that issue. We see nothing in the record that authorizes us to disturb their finding, and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
[After the rendition of the foregoing opinion, counsel for the appellant moved for a rehearing on grounds which are sufficiently indicated in the following opinion overruling the motion. — Reporters.]