Wilson v. State, 26263
| Decision Date | 04 March 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 26263,26263 |
| Citation | 158 Tex.Crim. 334,255 S.W.2d 520 |
| Parties | WILSON v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Justice, Justice & Rowan, Wm. Wayne Justice, Athens, for appellant.
George P. Blackburn, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.
DAVIDSON, Commissioner.
This is a conviction for unlawfully selling whisky in a dry area, with punishment assessed at a fine of $200 by reason of a prior conviction of an offense of like character, under Art. 61, Vernon's Ann.P.C.
The sale was alleged to have been made to Levi Head, who testified that he purchased two pints of whisky from appellant at her home and that almost immediately after the appellant had delivered him the whisky he was taken into custody by Brownlow, a deputy sheriff, and taken to jail. Appellant denied the sale.
Notwithstanding the fact that appellant had invoked the rule as to all witnesses, the trial court refused to require Deputy Sheriff Brownlow, who arrested the witness Head at the home of appellant, to be placed under the rule, and Brownlow remained in the courtroom during the trial, heard all the witnesses testify in the case, and, over appellant's objection, was permitted to testify as to facts occurring at the time of the alleged sale and at the time he took the witness Head into custody together with the two pints of whisky.
Brownlow's testimony directly corroborated that of the witness Head and contradicted the testimony of the appellant upon the issue of appellant's guilt or innocence.
Appellant's request for the rule invoked the provisions of Art. 644, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P., which reads as follows:
This right to have witnesses separated and excluded from the courtroom during the introduction of testimony is a material right which is said to be a heritage of the common law and originating in the History of Susanna, a book of the Apocrypha.
It has been the long and repeated holding of this court that the right stated under Art. 644, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P., hereinbefore referred to, is directory rather than mandatory and that trial courts are given much latitude, as a matter of discretion, in the enforcement thereof. Especially is that true when the witness who is exempted from the rule is,...
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Guerra v. State
...V.A.C.C.P., which provides, inter alia, that "[t]he enforcement of the rule is in the discretion of the court," see Wilson v. State, 158 Tex.Cr.R. 334, 255 S.W.2d 520 (1953), and was most recently reiterated in Green v. State, 682 S.W.2d 271 The trial court abuses its discretion when its re......
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...the rule as to the sheriff and the district clerk at the hearing on the motion for change of venue and relies upon Wilson v. State, 158 Tex.Cr.R. 334, 255 S.W.2d 520. At the outset, we observe that in Wilson the court failed to invoke the rule during the trial itself, and further call atten......
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Hougham v. State
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