Simms v. State

Citations

• 8 Tex. Ct. App. 230

Syllabus

<p>1. Charge on Circumstantial Evidence. — A proper charge on the Cogency of circumstantial evidence is a necessary part of the law applicable to a case wherein the inculpatory proof is of that character; but there is no prescribed formula for an instruction on that or any other subject. If sufficient in substance, and so expressed as to be readily understood by the jury, the requirements of the law in this respect are satisfied.</p> <p>2. Evidence — Practice. — The admission of immaterial evidence, not objected to, is not necessarily cause for the reversal of even a capital conviction; but it may become such cause if the jury, by imputing undue importance to it, may have been misled to the prejudice of the accused.</p> <p>3. Accomplice Testimony. — Further than the statutory requirement that the evidence corroborative of an accomplice witness must tend “ to connect the defendant with the offence committed,” there is no statutory or judicial authority indicative of the characteristics of such corroborative evidence, with respect to its materiality or immateriality, nor indicative of the source from which it must be educed.</p> <p>4. Same — Charge oe the Court. — The language of the provision of the Code requiring corroboration of an accomplice witness, in conjunction with a definition of the term accomplice, is ordinarily a sufficient exposition of that subject in a charge to the jury.</p> <p>5. Same—Evidence. — But the corroborative evidence must tend directly and immediately, and not merely remotely, to connect the defendant with the commission of the offence. See evidence held insufficient in this respect.</p> <p>6. Hew Trial. — Defendant, having heen found guilty of murder, moved for a new trial on the ground that a juror, before being empanelled, said that if put on the jury he would hang the defendant. By a counter-showing it appeared that the juror’s remark was a mere device to avoid service on the jury, and that he had no bias. Held, not error to overrule th