Doty v. State

The general rule is that an indictment which uses the same or similar language of the statutory definition of the offense is basically sound, Art. 21.17, V.A.C.C.P., but the sources cited in note 1 reflect different readings of pertinent articles and do not present a common pattern.1 Faced with that lack of consistency the scrivener of the indictment before us apparently opted for Texas Annotated Penal Statutes, Branch’s 3d Ed.2 Thus, in Vol. 1 at page 634 the suggestion for attempted murder is:

“- did then and there attempt to cause the death of _ by _ (shooting him with a gun,) having at the…