Harris v. State
| Decision Date | 15 November 1905 |
| Citation | 89 S.W. 1064 |
| Parties | HARRIS v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Harris County; J. K. P. Gillaspie, Judge.
Rosetta Harris was convicted of murder in the second degree, and appeals. Reversed.
Stanley Thompson, for appellant. Howard Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
This conviction is for murder in the second degree, with five years in the penitentiary fixed as the penalty.
Appellant urges reversal upon the ground that the court failed to charge upon the law of manslaughter. Omitting the state's side of the case, we find appellant shows that on the morning previous to the difficulty in the evening, at the residence of deceased, where appellant was a roomer or boarder, there came up a difficulty between them in regard to some alleged slanderous remarks. Deceased cursed and abused appellant, and called her many and various kinds of hard names, and ordered her out of the house. She got ready to leave, and deceased came on her with a knife and undertook to cut her, and was prevented by appellant's mother and witness Browning. She cut at appellant, over her mother's shoulder—cut a hole in her skirt near the waist. When Browning threw up his hand to protect her from the assault of deceased, she cut him in the arm. She also cut at the mother of appellant, and Browning prevented deceased from cutting her. As appellant went out of the yard, deceased threw a spittoon, a brickbat, and a rock at her, and remarked to the mother of appellant, During the quarrel in the house, she threatened to kill appellant; and appellant testifies she would have done so, but for the interference of Browning and her mother. This all occurred about 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning. Subsequently, during the same day, and prior to the second trouble, which occurred about 2 o'clock, appellant bought a pistol, as she says, for the purpose of defending herself against the threatened attack of deceased. Returning from town, she stopped at the residence of a friend, whom she calls "Susie," and just as she walked out of the gate of her friend she noticed deceased and two or three other women coming up the street. As soon as appellant recognized whom they were, and that deceased was one of them, "she started to walk...
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Treadway v. State
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