Harris v. State

Decision Date14 December 1889
CourtTexas Court of Appeals
PartiesHARRIS <I>v.</I> STATE.

Appeal from district court, Walker county; N. G. KITTRELL, Judge.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Davidson, for the State.

WHITE, P. J.

Appellant has been convicted of the murder of her infant babe, and her punishment has been assessed at a life term in the penitentiary. We are of opinion that the evidence establishing the corpus delicti is not sufficient to sustain the judgment, in so far as the same is made to appear in the record here before us. To warrant a conviction it was necessary for the state to prove that the child was born alive; that it had an existence independent of the mother; and that afterwards its life was destroyed by the act, agency, or procurement of its mother, this defendant. Wallace v. State, 7 Tex. App. 570, 10 Tex. App. 255; Sheppard v. State, 17 Tex. App. 74. Defendant confessed that the child was born on Sunday night; that it was born alive; that she put it into Dr. Baldwin's spring; and that it was alive when she put it in the spring. The child was found the following Wednesday. Now, if the defendant's confessions were sufficient by themselves, perhaps we might hold that the corpus delicti had been sufficiently proved. These, however, in and of themselves, are not sufficient. The corpus delicti consists not merely of an objective crime, but of the defendant's agency of the crime; and it is well settled that, unless the corpus delicti in both these respects is proved, a confession is not by itself enough to sustain a conviction. It must be corroborated. This can seldom be done by direct or positive testimony, but it may as well be shown by circumstantial evidence. Willard v. State, 27 Tex. App. 386, 11 S. W. Rep. 453. Now, what was the corroboration in this case? The doctor who testified as an expert says: "I cannot say positively whether the child was ever alive, or whether it had ever breathed." He dissected the child's head, and found that the skull had not been fractured. He took out the lung, and applied the hydrostatic test, and found air in it, — the usually accepted test that it had breathed. This was sufficient corroboration as to the fact that the child was born alive. Concede that the child had been born alive. Was it killed, or was it drowned? Evidently the doctor does not think it was killed by violence. As to the chances and probabilities that it had been drowned, he does not say one word. Why did not he make an examination, and give his...

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26 cases
  • State ex rel. Atkinson v. Wilson
    • United States
    • West Virginia Supreme Court
    • December 18, 1984
    ...(N.D.1917); State v. Dickinson, 28 Ohio St.2d 65, 275 N.E.2d 599 (1971); State v. Amaro, 448 A.2d 1257 (R.I.1982); Harris v. State, 28 Tex.App. 308, 12 S.W. 1102 (1889); State v. Larsen, 578 P.2d 1280 (Utah 1978); Bennett v. State, 377 P.2d 634 (Wyo.1963); Annot., 40 A.L.R.3d 444 (1971).4 T......
  • Meadows v. State, CR
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    • Arkansas Supreme Court
    • January 26, 1987
    ...(N.D.1917); State v. Dickinson, 28 Ohio St.2d 65, 275 N.E.2d 599 (1971); State v. Amaro, 448 A.2d 1257 (R.I.1982); Harris v. State, 28 Tex.App. 308, 12 S.W. 1102 (1889); State v. Larsen, 578 P.2d 1280 (Utah 1978); Bennett v. State, 377 P.2d 634 (Wyo.1963); Annot., 40 A.L.R.3d 444 (1971). St......
  • State v. Lamy
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    ...v. Dellatore, 761 A.2d 226, 230 (R.I.2000) ; Jackson v. Commonwealth, 265 Ky. 295, 96 S.W.2d 1014, 1014 (1936) ; Harris v. State, 28 Tex.App. 308, 12 S.W. 1102, 1103 (1889). Before the advances of modern medicine, the extent of an infant's life support was its connection to its mother. Once......
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    ...1 Add. 1 (Pa.1791); State v. Amaro, 448 A.2d 1257 (R.I.1982); Morgan v. State, 148 Tenn. 417, 256 S.W. 433 (1923); Harris v. State, 28 Tex.App. 308, 12 S.W. 1102 (Tex.1889); State v. Larsen, 578 P.2d 1280 (Utah 1978); Lane v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. 509, 248 S.E.2d 781 (1978); Huebner v. Stat......
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