The Texas Reports; Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court Volume 24 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ...hands of Bass, for the joint benefit of himself and Mitchell, and Bass so received it, then Bass would be liable to Mitchell for onehalf of the note, without any express promise. We think the charge of the court was erroneous, and calculated to mislead the jury; and that the motion for a new trial ought, for that reason, to have been sustained. Thejudgment of the court below is reversed, and the cause remanded. Reversed and remanded. The discretion given to the jury, by article 74 of the penal code, to direct, when the penalty afiixed is imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, that the confinement may be solitary, or in whole, or in part. to labor, is not in confiict with article 612, as originally adopted, which provided that murder might be punished by death, solitary confinement in the penitentiary for life, confinement to labor for a term of years, not less," etc. Article 612 was so shaped, to define the extent of the power of the jury, when they should determine to adopt either one of the three modes of punishing murder. Solitary confinement for life, is not mentioned in the code, as a specific class of punishment, but it is included under a part of the second division into which punishments are classified, viz., 2d, imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, or for a period of time." And the jury may, in view of the degree of atrocity, or circumstances of extenuation, of the case, increase the rigor of the confinement forlife, by making it, in whole or in part, solitary. Such construction should be given to the different articles of the corle. as accords with its general objects and purpose. and which will give full effect to all its provisions, general as well as special, so that they may...