Thomas v. State

OPINION ON STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

BENAVIDES, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of carrying a deadly weapon known as a “shank” inside a penal institution. See V.T.C.A., Penal Code, § 46.11(a)(1). His punishment, enhanced by two prior felony convictions, was assessed by the jury at confinement for life in the penitentiary. See V.T.C.A., Penal Code, § 12.42(d). But the Fourteenth Court of Appeals ordered a judgment of acquittal entered instead, holding the evidence constitutionally insufficient to sustain Appellant’s conviction because the alleged object was actually a kind of…