Hollis v. State
Hollis v. State
Opinion of the Court
The only bill of exceptions appearing in the record was reserved to the ruling of the court upon the competency of two jurors who had been summoned on the special venire, and who, upon examination as to their qualifications, were challenged for cause by the defendant; and the challenge being overruled, he then challenged them
But, if they were subject to challenge for cause, the defendant got rid of them by his peremptory challenges, and they neither sat on the jury nor tried him. True, he says he exhausted his peremptory challenges. Suppose he did ; that fact alone would not entitle him to have his case reversed because some of his peremptory challenges were expended upon incompetent jurors. In addition to the fact that he was compelled to use his peremptory challenge upon a juror who should have been made to stand aside for cause, he must ■ show the further fact that, after the peremptory challenges were exhausted, an incompetent or otherwise obnoxious and objectionable juror, and whom he would not have accepted if he had had further challenges, was forced upon him to his prejudice, and actually sat upon his trial. Sharp v. The State, 6 Texas Ct. App. 650; Myers v. The State, 7 Texas Ct. App. 641; Grissom v. The State, ante, p. 386; McKinney v. The State, post, p. 626. For aught that appears, the jury may have been completed by an unexceptionable juror, called immediately after defendant had exhausted his last peremptory challenge upon the jurors mentioned in the bill. And certainly when the jury which at last tries the prisoner is composed of unobjectionable jurors, he has no just ground to complain.
It is insisted that the court erred in the following portion of the eighth subdivision of the charge, viz.: “ He who seeks and brings on a difficulty with his antagonist, and in such difficulty kills him, will not be justified in law, even though it should appear that his life or person was endangered.”
Appellant has no just ground of complaint with reference to the general charge of the court; it was much more favorable than he had any right to expect from the evidence as we read it in the statement of facts. There is not thé slightest semblance of self-defence in the testimony. He provoked the difficulty in the first instance, and inflicted a wound upon deceased with a knife or other instrument. He renews the difficulty again, and, because deceased said he had cut or struck him, he tells him he will kill him if he repeats it; and when deceased, who was warned, repeats it, true to his word, he shoots him down and then flees the country. He has no right to complain of the verdict and judgment finding him guilty of murder of the second degree. Under the facts, he could justly have been found
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.