James Brown Braden Et Al. v. State

COOPER, Justice. OPINION James Brown Braden, Paul William Swindell, and Douglas Graham Moulton were convicted in the Criminal Court of Hickman County of possession of marijuana, with the intent to resell the same in violation of the Drug Control Act of 1971. Each of the defendants was sentenced to serve not more than, nor less than, one year in the penitentiary. The convictions were affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals, with each member of the three Judge panel writing a separate opinion. This court granted certiorari to review the holding of the Court of Criminal Appeals that it was not error for the District Attorney General, in his closing argument, to comment on the failure of the defendants to make a statement to the arresting officers in explanation of defendants' presence at a marijuana cache. In late August, 1972, agents of the Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division, searching for an illegal distillery in Hickman County, found a cache of approximately 115 pounds of marijuana hidden in a brush arbor in a ravine near the Primm Springs Road. Subsequently, they found the distillery nearby.