Jack Harry Smith v. State Texas

On appeal appellant contends that after the selection of five jurors his co-defendant, Hamilton, first agreed to become a States witness, and the court erred in overruling his motions for mistrial, continuance and to leave to interrogate the five selected jurors on the law of accomplice witnesses, depriving him of due process and effective assistance of counsel. He also contends a prospective juror, Freeman, was excused in violation of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S. Ct. 1770, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776 (1968); that the court erred in overruling his objections to the charge which combined two theories of criminal responsibility reducing the States burden of proof when the evidence was undisputed he fired the fatal shots; that the court erred in admitting an attempted escape report from prison records; that the court erred in admitting an unadjudicated extraneous offense and the facts thereof at the penalty stage of the trial; the the evidence was insufficient to support the jurys affirmative answers to special issues numbers on and three submitted under Article 37.071, V.A.C.C.P.