Rojas v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In ground of error number two, appellant contends that the court’s charge was fundamentally defective because it allowed the jury to convict him if it found that he had participated in a combination or in the profits of a combination while the indictment alleged that the defendant had participated in the combination and in the profits of a combination. Appellant argues that the court’s charge is a diminution of the State’s burden of proof and violates the rule announced in Cosper v. State, 646 S.W.2d 676, 677 (Tex. App. — San Antonio), pet. granted per curiam, 650 S.W.2d 839 (Tex.Cr.App.1983) (remanded for determination of unaddressed grounds of error). We disagree with appellant’s characterization. In Cumbie v. State, 578 S.W.2d 732, 733 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), (footnote omitted) the court of criminal appeals stated that a diminution of the State’s burden of proof occurs where there is “[a]n omission from the court’s charge of an allegation in the indictment which is required to be proved_” We do not view the phrasing of indictment allegations in the conjunctive and jury instructions in the disjunctive as any diminution in the State’s burden of proof. As stated by the court of criminal appeals in Robinson v. State, 596 S.W.2d 130, 134 (Tex. Cr.App.1980) (on rehearing), the “conjunctive/disjunctive of pleading and charging has been sanctioned by this Court; fundamental error is not present in such instances.” (Emphasis supplied).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Carrion v. State