Howard v. State

The old saying that “the criminal goes free because the Constable erred” is enlarged by this case to situations where the Constable does not err. On original submission, a majority of this Court held that the City of Austin vagrancy statute was unconstitutional and that evidence seized in a search incident to an arrest under that unconstitutional ordinance was inadmissible. I agree that the original opinion was correct in holding the Austin vagrancy statute unconstitutional, but I write to disassociate myself from the Court’s misapplication of Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 99 S.Ct.…