Papageorge v. State
| Decision Date | 19 March 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 25662,25662 |
| Parties | PAPAGEORGE v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
J. W. Cooper, Jr., Corpus Christi, for appellant.
John Young, County Atty., Corpus Christi, George P. Blackburn, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.
DAVIDSON, Commissioner.
The charging part of the complaint upon which this conviction is predicated reads as follows: '* * * did then and there unlawfully Fish with a net and seine in closed waters, to-wit, Ingleside Cove, which had theretofore been closed against the use of nets and seines by Act of the Legislature of the State of Texas; the said George Papageorge having been convicted on prior occasions of fishing with a net and seine in closed waters, which are offenses of like character to that hereinbefore alleged * * *.'
The complaint was drawn and conviction obtained under Art. 941, P.C., as amended.
The punishment for a violation of said statute 'on second or more convictions shall be fixed in the sum of not less than one hundred ($100) dollars nor more than two hundered ($200).' The punishment here assessed was the maximum of $200.
Among the attacks made upon the complaint is that the allegations of prior convictions are vague and indefinite and fail to give notice of the court, the time, the place, or the offense for which appellant is alleged to have been previously convicted.
It has been the repeated holding of this court that in cases involving prior convictions for the purpose of enhancing the punishment, definiteness and certainty are required in the state's pleading as to such matters. Morman v. State, 127 Tex.Cr.R. 264, 75 S.W.2d 886; Waltrip v. State, 134 Tex.Cr.R. 202, 114 S.W.2d 555; Palmer v. State, 128 Tex.Cr.R. 293, 81 S.W.2d 76; Goodale v. State, 146 Tex.Cr.R. 568, 177 S.W.2d 211.
The state recognizes the holding but seeks to avoid the application thereof to the instant case, claiming that, here, the prior convictions are for acts declared to be unlawful by the legislature and not merely involving a matter of punishment. It is insisted that, inasmuch as the complaint followed the language of the statute, no necessity existed to allege with definiteness the prior convictions relied upon by the state.
With this conclusion we cannot agree. The validity of the enhancement-of-punishment statutes, Arts. 61 to 64, P.C., was sustained, as against the contention that they violated the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy, because said st...
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Hollins v. State
...in alleging prior convictions for enhancement definiteness and certainty are required in the State's pleadings. Papageorge v. State, 157 Tex.Cr.R. 119, 246 S.W.2d 880 (1952). This is so because an accused is entitled to proper notice of any prior conviction alleged for enhancement of punish......
- Morgan v. State, 25726