Court Opinion

ID: 9776426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:34:57.652024+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:38.441441
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
ONION, Judge.
Article 315 of the Texas Penal Code provides as follows:
“Whoever shall designedly induce another to commit perjury or false swearing shall be punished as if he had himself committed the crime.”
“The crime of subornation of perjury consists of two essential elements: commission of perjury by the person suborned, and wilful procuring or inducing him to do so by the suborner. If these elements appear the crime is complete.” 45 Tex.Jur. 2d, Perjury & False Swearing, p. 92, Sec. 50.
Perjury is defined by Article 302 of the Texas Penal Code as follows:
“Perjury is a false statement, either written or verbal, deliberately and wilfully *502made, relating to something past or present, under the sanction of an oath, or such affirmation as is by law equivalent to an oath, where such oath or affirmation is legally administered, under circumstances in which an oath or affirmation is required by law, or is necessary for the prosecution or defense of any private right, or for the ends of public justice.”
Under the perjury portion of the indictment in the case at bar, the State did not choose to limit itself to alleging the corpus delicti of perjury, but chose, instead, to further allege that Willie Hanson knew that his statement was false when he made it.
It was long ago held by this Court that in a perjury prosecution the State need not allege or prove that an accused knew the statement to be false when he made it. Ferguson v. State, 36 Tex.Cr.R. 60, 35 S.W. 369 (overruling State v. Powell, 28 Tex. 627); Chavarria v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 63 S.W. 312.
A witness may commit perjury if he swears to a matter about which he consciously has no knowledge. The effect of such testimony is that the witness declares that he knows the truth of what he states, and, if he is conscious he does not know it, he means to swear falsely. See Ferguson v. State, supra; Bishop New Cr.Law, Sec. 1042, subd. 2; See 2 Branch’s Anno.P.C. 2d Ed., Sec. 859, p. 313.
However, the State, being bound by its allegations in the indictment, must prove them beyond a reasonable doubt.
Appellant contends that Castro v. State, 124 Tex.Cr.R. 13, 60 S.W.2d 211, cited in our original opinion, does not hold that an irrebuttable presumption is raised upon proof of a prior felony conviction, but that mere proof of the prior felony is enough to support a jury verdict under appropriate instructions.1 We agree.
Therefore, appellant urges on rehearing, that even though the Court may find the evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction, it was sufficient only under a proper affirmative instruction where such instruction was timely requested. He contends the trial court erred in overruling his timely presented special requested charge #4.
Appellant’s requested charge # 4 reads:
“You are instructed that unless you believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Willie Hanson knew that he had previously been convicted of a felony when he testified in Criminal District Court No. 2 of Harris County, Texas, on October. 13, 1965, you will find this defendant, Asberry B. Butler, Jr., not guilty.”
We observe that the pertinent portion of the court’s charge reads as follows:
“Now, therefore, if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that * * * the said Willie Hanson did then and there before the said Judge and Jury (Criminal District Court No. 2), upon the trial of said cause under the sanction of said oath administered to him as aforesaid, wilfully and deliberately state and testify in substance that he, the said Willie Hanson, had not been convicted of a felony in this or any other state; which statement was material to the issue in said cause and which said statement was wilfully and deliberately false, as he, the said Willie Hanson, then and there well knew when he made the same; * * * you will find the defendant guilty as charged of the offense of subornation of perjury, * *
*503At the conclusion of the above charge the court in a separate paragraph instructed the jury on the converse thereof:
“If you do not believe from the evidence or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you will acquit the Defendant Asberry B. Butler, Jr., and say by your verdict 'not guilty.’”
While it may have been desirable or more practical to have given appellant’s requested charge, in view of the length and complexity of that part of the court’s charge dealing with this matter, a portion of which quoted above, we conclude that the requested charge was substantially given and covered in the main charge and no error is presented. Article 36.15, V.A.C.C.P. n. 79, 80, 81.
Appellant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.

. It is evident from an inspection of the record in Castro, supra, that Castro made no request for a charge on his understanding of the meaning of the words “convicted of a felony,” which were contained in his sworn application for a suspended sentence. The Castro opinion was merely saying that under the evidence presented, the jury was entitled to presume7 that Castro knew what a felony was.