Court Opinion

ID: 9682821
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:17:36.479899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:42.042681
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
MORRISON, Presiding Judge.
Appellant raises only one point of error in his motion for rehearing. He contends that use of the prior convictions to enhance his punishment, as provided by Article 63, Vernon’s Ann.P.C., violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 14 of the Constitution of the State of Texas, Vernon’s Ann.St. 5, in that such use places him in jeopardy a second time for the convictions so used. As this Court pointed out in Phariss v. State, 149 Tex.Cr.App. 489, 196 S.W.2d 826, in rejecting a like contention, the State in alleging the prior convictions was not seeking to again convict the defendant, but was merely seeking to enhance his punishment for the offense for which he was then on trial in the event of conviction. The provisions of the Article do not create an offense, inflict additional punishment for a prior offense, or authorize a conviction on a habitual criminal charge; they merely prescribe more severe punishment based on persistence in crime. 16 Tex.Jur.2d, Secs. 403 and 404, pp. 624 and 625.
Finding no merit in appellant’s contention, his motion for rehearing is overruled.