Court Opinion

ID: 9862926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 02:29:12.166073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:38:12.793175
License: Public Domain

ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
MORRISON, Judge.
Appellant urges that we distinguish the case at bar from the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in Russell v. United States, 369 U.S. 749, 82 S.Ct. 1038, 8 L.Ed.2d 240. In Russell the accused was not informed in the indictment as to the matter which was being investigated by the Legislative Committee nor was he told the questions which he was alleged to have refused to answer. To bring this case within the rule in Russell, the indictment would have to have alleged that appellant sold an unnamed drug to an unnamed person on the day in question. Had this indictment been so indefinite, we would have no hesitancy in agreeing with appellant, but here we have the name of the drug and the name of the purchaser, and the rule in Russell and the other cases cited by appellant have no application.
Appellant further contends that we have approved the admission of the numerous other forged prescriptions upon a theory not authorized by the charge, i. e., on the issue of intent. He relies upon Cole v. State of Arkansas, 333 U.S. 196, 68 S. Ct. 514, 92 L.Ed. 644. Such was not our intention. According to the officer’s testimony, appellant stated that the purchaser returned to his drug store in such a short length of time that it was highly improbable that she might have secured a legitimate prescription. In order to demonstrate that appellant knew that the prescription involved in the instant case was not genuine, it was proper for the State to show that appellant had in his possession numerous other prescriptions which were forged. This is the same line of reasoning employed by this Court in the recent case of Hill v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 364 S.W.2d 381.
Remaining convinced that we properly disposed of this appeal originally, appellant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.