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967 S.W.2d 404

State v. Mays

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Decided April 15, 1998

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · decided 1998-04-15

Relies on Daniels v. State · Haecker v. State · Gibbons v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1998-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently May 2019 · most notably Curry v. State (2000), State v. Moff (2004)

48 state decisions

240199820002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

BAIRD, Judge,

¶1concurring.

¶2As a general rule, an indictment which tracks the statutory language provides sufficient notice. Daniels v. State, 754 S.W.2d 214, 218 (Tex.Cr.App.1988). However, there are two exceptions to this general rule. First, where an indictment contains a necessary allegation of an act by the defendant which comprises more than one statutorily defined means of its performance, but the indictment fails to specify which of the statutory definitions of the act is relied upon, the indictment fails to provide the constitutionally required notice. Gibbons v. State, 652 S.W.2d 413 (Tex.Cr.App.1983). This exception is not at issue in the present case, because the statute in question contains only one manners or means of commission.

¶3The second exception is if the statutory language is not completely descriptive, merely tracking the language of the statute is insufficient to provide the constitutionally required notice to the defendant. Haecker v. State, 571 S.W.2d 920, 921-22 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); and, Conklin v. State, 144 Tex.Crim. 343, 162 S.W.2d 973 (1942). But in the instant case the statutorily language is sufficiently descriptive to provide the requisite notice.

¶4However, I cannot join the majority opinion because I do not believe the conversation described in footnote 1 a., ante at 408, is an illegal solicitation sufficient to constitute the offense of barratry.

¶5Therefore, I join only the judgment of the Court.

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