Court Opinion

ID: 9769450
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:51:02.379961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:03.684589
License: Public Domain

CLINTON, Judge,
dissenting.
From the conclusion that the indictment is sufficient to and does allege the offense of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, I respectfully dissent. My own view is that the statement of the overt act that followed the agreement to engage in conduct that would constitute a felony offense may not serve to upgrade the offense that is alleged to be the object of the agreement. Here the indictment expressly names the intended offense as “robbery” and then alleges every ultimate fact of that offense as prescribed by V.T.C.A., Penal Code Section 29.02(a)(1)1. Until the statement of the overt act, then, the indictment charged appellant with criminal conspiracy to commit the offense of robbery only.
The offense of criminal conspiracy consists of an intent that a particular felony be committed, an agreement to engage in conduct that would constitute that offense and performance of an overt act in pursuance of the agreement. The latter element is said to be “new to Texas law,” Practice Commentary 1 V.T.C.A., Penal Code, 522, but it is axiomatic in other jurisdictions which have modified the common law rule that the overt act in pursuance of the conspiracy “need not be in itself a criminal or unlawful act,” 15A C.J.S. 750 Conspiracy, § 43(2), n. 86. Even though performance of an overt act is required, the gist of the offense remains the agreement to engage in feloni-ously offensive conduct for the purpose of requiring an overt act to give conspirators an opportunity to abandon their undertaking and avoid penalty before it is put in operation by some decisive act. Id. at 747, Conspiracy § 43(1) ns. 73, 73.5 and 73.10. Plainly then the office of an allegation that a particular overt act in pursuance of the agreement was performed is other than further to define the terms and objective of the agreement.
Convinced, therefore, that the indictment in this cause clearly alleges an intent and agreement to commit the offense of robbery in describing the criminal conspiracy, I dissent to application of the notion that an allegation of an overt act involving using or exhibiting a deadly weapon may be utilized to “bootstrap” the offense to the higher grade of aggravated robbery.

. “(a) A person commits an offense if, in the course of committing theft . . and with intent to obtain and maintain control of the property, he:
(1) intentionally, knowingly . . . causes bodily injury to another . . ”