Court Opinion

ID: 9761288
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:37:37.501179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:21.776166
License: Public Domain

MORRISON, Judge
(dissenting).
This underprivileged colored boy has been denied due process of law, and the record in this case affirmatively asserts it. What I say should in no wise discredit the conscientious and considerate trial judge who tried this case. This boy was fifteen years and three months old when the offense for which he presently stands convicted was committed. He was committed to Gatesville under evidence admitted before the juvenile court showing that he had taken $30.00 in cash and an automobile from M. J. Tremont, and was there confined until he was seventeen. He was then returned to Bryan, tried again and given a life sentence for killing M. J. Tremont at the time he took the $30.00 and the automobile.
In Doggett v. State, 130 Tex.Cr.R. 208, 93 S.W.2d 399, (1936), this Court speaking through Presiding Judge Morrow in a well considered opinion said:
“In the present instance, the proof is conclusive that, in the appellant’s conviction for murder, he was convicted of the same transaction and upon the same evidence as that upon which he was previously convicted of the offense of robbery with firearms.”
The opinion of the majority is contrary to the rationale of this Court in Garza v. State, 369 S.W.2d 36, and the holding of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas in Sawyer v. Hauck, 245 F.Supp. 55.
I dissent with vigor as I did in Ex parte Martinez, Tex.Cr.App., 386 S.W.2d 280, and Ex parte Sawyer, Tex.Cr.App., 386 S.W.2d 275.