Court Opinion

ID: 9779215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:40:22.743375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:23.580973
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(dissenting).
After the draft of the original opinion, it was called to the attention of the voting majority that the appellant’s brief was not timely filed within thirty (30) days after approval of the record as required by Article 40.09, Section 9, Vernon’s Ann. C.C.P. The record was approved by the trial court December 19, 1973, and notice of approval of the record was given appellant’s retained counsel. The appellate brief was filed January 23, 1974. According to our previous holdings, the matter is not properly before us for review. The majority of the voting members of the Court choose to ignore this. When do we follow the rules passed by the Legislature and when are we to ignore them?
Tn its desire to change the rule that alleged errors in the court’s charge will not be considered in the absence of a complete statement of facts or a proper bill of exception, the majority, without saying so, has to consider the question in the interest of justice under Article 40.09, Section 13, V.A.C.C.P. Nearly all practicing lawyers and judges know that sufficiency of the evidence is more important to the jury and to a defendant than the instructions. This Court has held that the sufficiency of the evidence cannot be considered unless it is properly briefed. White v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 487 S.W.2d 104. See also Barbee v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 432 S.W.2d 78. But the majority now holds that a charge on murder without malice is more important than the sufficiency of the evidence and reverses the conviction on the failure to give such a charge.
The objection to the charge was in substance as follows :
“. . . [f]or the defendant testified that at the time of the shooting she was in a state of fear and terror due to the fact that she had been knocked over a coffee table and struck by the deceased that was sufficient adequate cause to defendant to be in a state of mind incapable of cool reflection. . . .”
The testimony of the appellant did not raise the issue of murder without malice. She testified that she was living with the deceased. She and the deceased had an argument at the Brewster Street Lounge about her working on Christmas Day. She further related that she calmed him down and later they went home. He fixed and brought her food upstairs. He ate *849and then started fighting her again and knocked her down on the coffee table and broke up everything in the living room. Later she testified, “Me thinking everything was all right, I went into the bedroom.”
“Q. What did he do ?
“A. He went into the bedroom.
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“Q. Now, after Charles went into the bedroom then what did you do, what did you do some minutes later ?
“A. I got in bed.
a * * ⅜
“Q. And where was Charles?
“A. Laying on the bed with his face turned to the wall.”
She further testified that after she got in bed he told her, “He was tired of my -.” Charles was in the bed with his face to the wall and that he then pushed up on his elbow facing her “a little bit” with a pistol in his hand. When she saw the gun she got scared and, “I don’t know why the gun slipped, but when the gun slipped I just picked it up and started shooting” and pulled the trigger two times, and
“Q. You heard the man here when he testified the gun was up against him?
“A. Well, we were both in bed.
“Q. Up against Charles’ tee shirt, do you know whether or not the gun was touching him ?
“A. No, I don’t know if it was touching him, but we were both in the bed.
“Q. Now, what position was Charles in if you know when you fired the first shot ?
“A. He hollered ‘Oh’ and laid back down, like he was before, with his face turned to the wall.”
She related that she fired the gun because she was scared, but she did not intend to kill him.
This evidence does not raise the issue of murder without malice. In McGee v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 473 S.W.2d 11, the accused argued with some people in a cafe where someone threatened to shoot him. He left there in a rage. Later he walked into an alley where he saw two young men who he thought bothered him earlier. One was the victim of the shooting. He stated that he heard McGee had jumped on his cousin and they argued. The deceased then told McGee that he was going to kick his rear. McGee testified that he fired because he was afraid that the two were going to attack him and that he did not know what he was doing and was afraid the deceased was fixing to shoot him.
This Court held that no charge on murder without malice was required. In that case and in the instant case the Court covered the issues raised by the evidence —self-defense. The McGee case was a stronger case for such a charge than this case. In the present case the appellant, after the fight, thought everything was all right and went to bed with the deceased. Is the majority overruling the McGee case and Bryant v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 482 S.W.2d 270? If so, it should be specifically done because the trial judges and lawyers look to our decisions for guidance.
The judgment should be affirmed.
MORRISON, J., joins in this dissent.