Sanders v. State

Citations

• 18 Tex. Ct. App. 372
• 1885 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 113

Syllabus

<p>1. Practice—Plea oe Guilty.—It is expressly provided by statute that the plea of guilty “ shall not be received unless it plainly appear that the accused is sane, and is uninfluenced by any consideration of fear, or by any persuasion or delusive hope of pardon, prompting him to confess his guilt.” These essential concomitants of the plea of guilty must appear of record, else the plea is not good in law; and such a record showing is not accomplished by the recital in the judgment that, “after hearing the indictment read, the defendant’s plea of guilty (after being duly and legally warned by the court, in open court, of the legal consequences of such plea, and, after being so warned, the defendant still persisted in pleading guilty),” etc.</p> <p>2. Same—Presumption oe Law.— Ordinarily the sanity of a defendant is presumed until the contrary is made to appear, but, in prosecutions for crime, if it be proposed by the accused to plead guilty, the very reverse of this presumption is the rule, and the law assumes, until it is made otherwise to appear, that the accused is insane, or has been improperly influenced.</p> <p>3. Same — Murder.— Charge oe the Court instructed the jury as follows: “ The plea of guilty by said defendant is a plea of guilty to the highest grade charged, which is murder of the first degree. Upon his plea of guilty your only duty is to assess the penalty. You will, therefore, assess his punishment either at death, or at confinement in the State penitentiary for life.” Held, fundamental error, in view of the express provision of article 607 of the Penal Code, which enacts as follows: “ If the jury sha]# find any person guilty of murder, they shall also find by their verdict whether it is of the first or second degree; and if any person shall plead guilty to an indiotment for murder, a jury shall be summoned to find of what degree of murder he is guilty, and in either case they shall also find the punishment.”</p> <p>4. Same—Verdict.— Under the char