Arthur v. State
| Decision Date | 26 October 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 32205,32205 |
| Citation | 339 S.W.2d 538,170 Tex.Crim. 161 |
| Parties | Ella ARTHUR, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Reeves & McDonald, by John B. McDonald, Plestine, for appellant.
Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The offense is murder; the punishment, 5 years.
Appellant, a negro woman 70 years of age, shot and killed her daughter-in-law, about 40 years of age. The killing occurred at appellant's home, and appellant's testimony raised the issue of self-defense.
Appellant filed motion for suspended sentence and offered a number of witnesses who testified to her good reputation as peaceable and law abiding.
Over appellant's objection, the State was permitted to introduce evidence from several witnesses that the reputation of the deceased for being a peaceable and inoffensive person was good.
There is no evidence suggesting any previous difficulty between appellant and the deceased, and no evidence that the deceased had at any previous time made threats against appellant.
It is never competent for the State in the first instance to prove that the person slain was peaceable and inoffensive. Such evidence becomes admissible in rebuttal when the opposite has been testified to in behalf of the defense, or when the defendant seeks to justify the homicide on the ground of threats made by the deceased. See Art. 1258, Vernon's Ann.P.C. and cases cited under Note 6; Pollard v. State, 119 Tex.Cr.R., 452, 45 S.W.2d 618; Keith v. State, 50 Tex.Cr.R. 63, 94 S.W. 1044; and Johnson v. State, 130 Tex.Cr.R. 596, 95 S.W.2d 968.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
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Armstrong v. State
...the defense, or when the defendant seeks to justify the homicide on the ground of threats made by the deceased. Arthur v. State, 170 Tex.Cr.R. 161, 339 S.W.2d 538, 539 (1960). See Lamb v. State, 680 S.W.2d 11 (Tex.Cr.App.1984) wherein the rule is applicable to capital At the guilt-innocence......
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Green v. State, No. 14-08-00831-CR (Tex. App. 12/8/2009)
...(Tex. Crim. App. 1985), overruled on other grounds by Mosley v. State, 983 S.W.2d 249 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998); Arthur v. State, 170 Tex. Crim. 161, 339 S.W.2d 538, 539 (1960). Erroneous admission of such evidence is harmless if other evidence at trial is admitted without objection and proves......
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Vela v. State, 49203
...the defense, or when the defendant seeks to Justify the homicide on the ground of threats made by the deceased.' Arthur v. State, 170 Tex.Cr.R. 161, 339 S.W.2d 538 at 539 (1960). (Emphasis The issue is thus confined to whether the testimony of appellant and his brother sufficiently raised t......
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...in a homicide case was peaceable and inoffensive. Armstrong v. State, 718 S.W.2d 686, 695 (Tex.Crim.App.1985); Arthur v. State, 170 Tex.Crim. 161, 339 S.W.2d 538, 539 (1960). Such evidence becomes admissible in rebuttal, however, when the defense has elicited evidence of the victim's violen......