Roach v. State

Citations

• 8 Tex. Ct. App. 478

Syllabus

<p>1. Murdee. — By art. 606 of the Penal Oode, all murder committed by the specified means of poison, starving, or torture, or committed in the perpetration or in the attempt at the perpetration of arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, is made murder in the first degree. If an indictment charges a murder to have been so committed, the evidence and the instructions to the jury must be confined to the case thus specifically made by the indictnent. The rulings to this effect in Tooney v. The State, 5 Texas Ct. App. 163, approved.</p> <p>2. Same.—Nevertheless, on the trial of an indictment in the common form for murder, the State may, as evidence of the malice aforethought, prove that the homicide was committed by poison, starving, or torture, or that the defendant’s motive in perpetrating it was to commit arson, rape, robbery, or burglary; and the instructions to the jury should be commensurate with the case made by the indictment and the facts in proof.</p> <p>3. Same — Charge of the Court. — In the trial of an indictment which in customary form charged a murder upon express malice aforethought, the evidence tended to prove that robbery was the motive which actuated the perpetrator. The court below gave in charge to the jury the general definition of murder and of “ express malice,” and also instructed them that all murder committed in the perpetration or in the attempted perpetration of robbery is murder in the first degree. Held, correct. Note the distinctions between this case and Tooney v. The State, 5 Texas Ct. App. 163.</p> <p>4. Accomplice Testimony. — To allow a conviction to stand upon testimony of an accomplice not corroborated by any other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the offence committed, would be in direct violation both of the letter and the spirit of art. 741, Revised Code of Criminal Procedure. The requirement of the law in this respect cannot be satisfied with any degree of credence accorded to the accomplice by the jury, nor by any am