Parrish v. State

Citations

• 45 Tex. 51

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence — Alibi.—On a trial for theft, two witnesses testified to facts tending to establish the guilt of the accused; nine other witnesses testified to an alibi for defendant, which was inconsistent with the truth of the testimony given by the two witnesses ; — on appeal from a judgment of conviction: Held, 1st, that the district judge trying the case had far better means of judging as to the weight to be given to the evidence of the respective witnesses, by an observation of their manner of testifying and their apparent intelligence, than that possessed by the Supreme Court upon merely seeing their evidence in writing; 2d, that the weight of evidence does not necessarily depend upon the number of witnesses; 3d, that the Supreme Court will not undertake to control the action of the District Court and jury trying the case, unless there has been something more than a mere preponderance in the number of witnesses who testify to facts inconsistent with guilt.</p> <p>2. Charge of court — Weight of evidence. — A charge upon the weight of evidence, which still leaves to the jury in terms the right to consider the degree of weight to be attached to the facts referred to in the charge, if not excepted to at the trial, is not necessarily a material error, when it can be seen that it was not reasonably calculated to injure the rights of the defendant.</p> <p>3. Charge of court. — The Code of Criminal Procedure not only excuses the judge before whom a cause is tried from charging on the weight of evidence, hut expressly and pointedly prohibits it. (Paschal’s Dig., arts. 3059, 3060.)</p> <p>4. Judgment — Criminal procedure. — Where it is apparent from an inspection of the record that an entry of a judgment of conviction before the expiration of two days from the coming in of the verdict, did not injuriously affect the rights of the defendant, and the same was up to the close of the term recognized by the court as a valid subsisting judgment, it will not be regarded as a