Pharr v. State
Pharr v. State
Opinion of the Court
We are of opinion there are errors of a material character prejudicial to the rights of the defendant
Again : the court charged, in effect, that if the jury believed that the unknown white man described in the indictment died from the effects of a gunshot wound inflicted on him by the defendant as charged in the indictment, and that such killing was unlawful as in the charge explained, and was committed in the perpetration or in the attempt at the perpetration of robbery as before explained, then the jury were instructed to find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. The defect in this portion of the charge is that it ignores malice, the indispensable requisite in all murder; without malice, either express or implied, there can be no murder. Again : it is not homicide committed in the perpetration or attempt at the perpetration of robbery .which is by the Code murder in the first degree, but it is all murder committed in this manner that constitutes the crime murder in the first degree. If a murder — that is, a homicide — was committed in the perpetration or in an attempt at the perpetration of robbery, and having the necessary ingredient of malice, whether express or implied, such killing would be murder in the first degree. Penal Code, art. 606 ; Tooney v. The State, 5 Texas Ct. App. 163.
And again: the charge does not place and keep before
We deem it important to notice another error in the charge, which is as follows': “While it is the duty of the jury to weigh and consider all the statements of the defendant that have been offered in evidence, they may act upon and believe such part or parts of the same as they believe, from all the facts and circumstances in evidence, to be entitled to credit or worthy of belief, and may disregard such part or parts as they deem unworthy of belief.” This portion of the charge was calculated to neutralize a previous portion, which was substantially correct, to this effect: “ When the admissions or confessions of a party are introduced in evidence by the State, then the whole of the admissions or confessions are to be taken together, and the State is bound by them unless they are shown to be untrue by the evidence ; such admissions or confessions are to be taken into consideration by the jury as evidence, in connection with all the other facts and circumstances of the case.” It must be borne in mind that the whole defence of the defendant rested on the fact that he had said he had killed the deceased, but did it in self-defence, coupled with that other portion of the same statement drawn out on
It seems to us that by that portion of the charge which permitted the jury to consider the testimony of the statements of the defendant they were authorized to believe so much of his statement as admitted the killing, and reject such portions as set up his justification for the act of killing, and which arose out of the testimony introduced by the State. “When part of an act, declaration, or conversation or writing is given in evidence by one party, the whole on the same subject may be inquired into by the other, — as when a letter is read, all other letters on the same subject between the same parties may be given. And when a detailed act, declaration, conversation, or writing is given in evidence, any other act, declaration, or writing, which is necessary to make it fully understood or to explain the same, may also be given in evidence.” Code Cr. Proc., art. 751. It is the province of the judge to deal with the law of every criminal case, but he is not at liberty to express any opinion as to the weight of evidence, and it is beyond the province of a judge sitting in criminal causes to discuss the facts. Code Cr. Proc., arts. 677, 678. “The jury are the exclusive judges of the facts in every criminal case, but not of the law in any case. They are bound to receive the law from the court, and be governed thereby.” Code Cr. Proc., art. 676 ; Stuckey v. The State, decided at the present term, ante, p. 174.
The sufficiency of the indictment is called in question by the
For the above errors in the charge of the court, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.