Ex Parte Winton

For the reasons set forth in Davila v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 547 S.W.2d 606, I agree that the indictment is fundamentally defective, because it fails to allege a culpable mental state. I dissent solely on the ground that to permit a collateral attack upon a final judgment of conviction upon the ground of a defect in the indictment by omission of a material element is an undue expansion of the writ of habeas corpus. As to a defective indictment, inquiry on habeas corpus should be limited solely to whether there existed a valid law under which a valid indictment could have been drawn, Ex parte…