Pharr v. State
Pharr v. State
Opinion of the Court
There is a marked difference in the attitude of the prosecution in this case and that occupied on the second appeal (9 Texas Ct. App. 129), in respect to the statements made by appellant to the witness Coulter
In the present case the State appears carefully and successfully to have avoided drawing out from the witness any part or portion of such conversation. On cross-examination, defendant’s counsel proposed to institute inquiry into this conversation and to introduce in evidence the statements and declarations then made therein by the defendant as to the causes and circumstances of the killing. On objection by the prosecution the court refused to admit the declarations and statements. In this the court did not err. Nothing had been elicited by the State requiring explanation, and no part of the conversation had been drawn out.
Declarations made by a defendant in his own favor are not admissible in his behalf unless part of the res gestee, or part of a confession offered by the prosecution; or unless coming within the rule that when part of an act, declaration, etc., is given in evidence the whole maybe required. Whart. Crim. Ev. (8th ed.) sec. 690; Code Crim. Proc. art. 751. The proposed declarations having been made the day after the murder and many miles distant from the scene, they were clearly not part of the res gestee. Whart. Crim. Ev. § 691; Foster v. State, 8 Texas Ct. App. 248; Boothe v. State, 4 Texas Ct. App. 202.
Its sufficiency and correctness as to circumstantial evidence is another supposed error in the charge which is complained of by appellant. The particular portion assigned as error is the following part of paragraph 14, viz.: “ all the circumstances, when taken together, must lead to a satisfactory conclusion, and produce in effect a reasonable and moral certainty that the defendant, and no
No form of words have been prescribed for a charge upon circumstantial evidence. In the case before us the charge is amply sufficient to instruct the jury as to its sufficiency and conclusiveness. Williams v. State, 41 Texas, 209; Rodriguez v. State, 5 Texas Ct. App. 256; Hunt v. State, 7 Texas Ct. App. 212; Rye v. State, 8 Texas Ct. App. 153; Simms v. State, 8 Texas Ct. App. 230; Taylor v. State, 9 Texas Ct. App. 104.
Another objection urged to the charge is that the word “unlawful ” when used with the word “ killing” is italicised or underscored. We see no ground of complaint in this, because every killing to be criminal must be unlawful, and that it must be so cannot, we conceive, be called too prominently to the attention of the jury. We notice that the word is underscored where, if any particular significance should be given to that .fact, it would inure to the benefit of the defendant. As a whole, we see no objection to the charge. It was a fair and full exposition of the law applicable to the facts.
There is no error for which the judgment should be reversed, and it‘is therefore in all things affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.