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433 S.W.2d 429

Wrighten v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Decided November 6, 1968

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1968-11-06

Decided 1968-11-06

¶1OPINION

BELCHER, Judge.

¶2The conviction is for rape, the punishment, 25 years.

¶3No transcription of the evidence on the trial on the merits is contained in the record.

¶4The record contains several formal bills of exception.

¶5The trial court in Formal Bill of Exception No. One certified:

“Be it remembered that on the trial of the above entitled and numbered cause which commenced on October 30, 1967, the Trial Court erred in permitting evidence or testimony to be introduced at the trial because the defendant was arrested without a warrant of arrest and without probable cause;
“Furthermore, the search and seizure was a general search and ipso facto unreasonable inasmuch as the search was conducted before the defendant was arrested.”

¶6In Formal Bill of Exception No. Two, the trial court certified as follows:

“The defendant’s rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States were violated because of the illegal arrest and detention, the illegal search and seizure, and for the further reason that there was no independent evidence other than the evidence that grew out of the aforementioned illegalities and was, therefore, fruit of the poisonous tree and was in violation of the derivitative evidence rule.”

¶7The trial judge heard the evidence and the objections of the appellant thereto, and this court from the record is in no position to dispute his certification of the facts.

¶8In view of the certificate of the trial judge showing that the search and seizure was illegal and the testimony was inadmissible and prejudicial to the rights of the appellant, it is concluded that Bills of Exception Nos. One and Two reflect reversible error.

¶9The disposition of this cause for the above reasons makes it unnecessary to review the other formal bills of exception.

¶10The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded.

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