Court Opinion

ID: 9777723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:21:41.669322+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:00.300849
License: Public Domain

CLINTON, Judge,
concurring.
Though I agree that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of the jury finding appellant guilty of theft and, therefore, concur with much of the opinion and with the judgment of the Court, I must again disassociate myself from its continuing adherence to the mistaken analysis of V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 31.03 made by a panel of the Court in Casey v. State, 633 S.W.2d 885 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). See Berg v. State, — S.W.2d - (Tex.Cr.App., No. 451-88, delivered November 14,1984) (Clinton, J., dissenting).
There is no such offense as “actual” theft relative to “receiving stolen property” or some other purported kind of theft. Theft is theft is theft. Y.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 31.02: “Theft as defined in Section 31.03 of this code constitutes a single offense ...”
Use of such terms in the opinion of the Court in this instant cause is reminiscent of Cooper v. State, 537 S.W.2d 940 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), viz:
“Since the evidence in no way indicates that he participated in the actual taking of the car, his offense must fall within Subsection (b)(2) of Section 31.03.
Id., at 944.1
To persist in an archaic idiom is to obfuscate, if not to mislead. In the factual context of this cause “appropriate” means “to acquire or otherwise exercise control over property other than real property.” V.T. C.A. Penal Code, § 31.01(5)(B). Thus, “actual taking” or whatever the manner of acquiring property is no longer a significant factor for attention. Similarly, acquiring or otherwise exercising control over property known to have been stolen by another can be accomplished without “receiving stolen property.” Berg v. State, supra. We should abandon outmoded language in favor of more precise terminology utilized by the Legislature in prescribing ingredients of the offense of theft.
And Casey v. State, supra, should be overruled, although this is not the occasion.

. All emphasis is supplied throughout by the writer of this opinion unless otherwise indicated.