Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

The estoppel rule, as it pertains to instructions on lesser-included offenses, will not be applied to all criminal cases where the legal sufficiency of the evidence is challenged and a lesser-included offense instruction is requested and received, nor should the rule be extended to preclude challenges to factual sufficiency. On the contrary, application of the estoppel rule should be confined exclusively to the limited number of cases that challenge the sufficiency of the evidence as it relates to the sudden-passion element of voluntary manslaughter and that arose before September 1, 1994.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/15/2006
• Published 11/15/2006

Judges

Court

• Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Pheobe Smith, Houston, for appellant., David C. Newell, Asst. D.A., Richmond, Matthew Paul, State's Attorney, Austin, for state.