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23 Tex. Ct. App. 313

Wright v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas

Decided April 30, 1887

Court of Appeals of Texas · decided 1887-04-30

Tried below before the Hon. D. P. Harr. A fine of twenty-five dollars and imprisonment in the county jail for ten days constituted the punishment assessed against appellant for keeping and exhibiting a gaming bank, commonly called a monte bank, for the purpose of gaming. The principal witness for the State inculpated himself as interested in the game, and also as the dealer of it during part of the day alleged in the indictment.

Decided 1887-04-30

Willson, Judge.

¶1This is a conviction for keeping and exhibiting a gaming bank for the purpose of gaming, and the punishment assessed and adjudged against the defendant is a fine of twenty-five dollars, and ten days imprisonment in the county jail. This punishment is within the provision of the Act of March 19, 1885 (Gen. Laws, 19 Leg., 34), amendatory of Article 358 of the Penal Code. This court, however, in Hunt et al. v. The State, 22 Texas Court of Appeals, 396, declared that Act to be unconstitutional, and that the only punishment which could be legally imposed for this offiense was that imposed by said Article 358.

¶2By this Article imprisonment in jail not more than thirty days may, in the discretion of the jury, be imposed in addition to the fine; but by the amendatory Act, above cited, imprisonment not less than ten nor more than ninety days was required, and in this case the court so instructed the jury. Ho discretion was left the jury to omit imprisonment as a part of the punishment. Because of this error the judgment must be reversed and the cause remanded, that the defendant may be tried under Article 358, the law in force when the offense was committed.

*315Opinion delivered April 30, 1887.

¶3It is expressly provided by statute that in prosecutions for gaming a conviction may be had upon the unsupported evidence of an accomplice or participant. (Penal Code, art. 367; Stone v. The State, 3 Texas Ct. App., 675). We have no hesitancy in saying that in our opinion this provision of the code is constitutional, and that the court, with reference theróto, did not err in its charge to the jury.

¶4The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded.

¶5Reversed and remanded.

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