Holden v. State

Citations

• 1 Tex. Ct. App. 225

Syllabus

<p>1. Indictments which do not conclude “ against the peace and dignity oí the state ” are fatally defective, whether excepted to or not.</p> <p>2. Murder—Charge on the Degrees.—Unless there is evidence making it. requisite that the distinctions between the degrees of murder be given in the charge to the jury, it is not error to refuse a charge asked on the second degree; but if the judge is in doubt as to which degree is established by the evidence, then he should charge the law relative to the less as well as-the greater degree.</p> <p>8. Same.—See the opinion in extenso upon the subject of instructing juries, in the trial of offenses which admit of degrees, and the order in which such instructions, when proper, should be given.</p> <p>4. Statutes — Repeal by Implication.—A subsequent statute which revises the entire subject-matter of a prior one, and which is intended as a. substitute therefor, repeals the prior one, though it contain no repealing, clause.</p> <p>6. Same.—An act of 1866 provided that Wilbarger county should, for judicial purposes, be attached to the county of Clay when the latter should be organized. In pursuance of requirements of the Constitution of 1869,. two acts were passed in 1870 creating judicial districts throughout the state, and prescribing the terms of the district courts therein, whereby the then unorganized counties of Clay and Wilbarger were attached for judicial purposes to the county of Montague. Clay county was organized in 1873, and subsequently the appellant was there indicted and tried for murder committed in Wilbarger county in 1874. Held, that the two acts of 1870 superseded and repealed the act of 1866, with its provisions for attaching Wilbarger county to Clay when organized; and, consequently, the district court of Olay county had no jurisdiction of the offense charged against appellant.</p> <p>6. Title of Statute.—The two acts of 1870, above referred to, had for their general object the organization of the district cour