Garza v. State

Citations

• 3 Tex. Ct. App. 286

Syllabus

<p>1. Dying Declarations. — See evidence held to satisfy the statutory requirements of the predicate for proof of dying declarations, which were made in a foreign language.</p> <p>2. Regall or Witness. —The recall of a witness for the purpose of laying the predicate to impeach him is discretionary with the judge presiding at the trial, and his refusal to allow it will not be revised unless the record shows an abuse of his discretion, or that the recall was necessary to justice.</p> <p>8. Special Ventre — Jury. — The rulings in Taylor v. The State, ante, p. 169, on the mode of impaneling'a jury from a special venire, referred to and reasserted. The mode defined in Sorbach v. The State, 43 Texas, 242, is still recognized as correct practice, and not affected by anything in the Jury Act of 1876.</p> <p>4. Murder — Charge or the Court. — The original charge to the jury submitted only the law applicable to murder of the first degree. The jury returned a verdict convicting the accused in the second degree, but the verdict was informal because it failed expressly to acquit him of the first degree. Thereupon the court, of its own motion, delivered to the jury a written charge upon the second degree, and sent them back to amend their verdict. Held, that the remand of the jury to amend their verdict was correct; but the additional instructions to the jury, without their request or the consent of the accused, were without authority of law, and necessitates a reversal of the judgment.</p>