Good v. State

While I join the opinion of the Court, I doubt that the line it attempts to draw for counsel in referring to “demeanor of a testifying witness” is “bright” enough.1 In this, it seems to me, this Court must be careful, cautious and precise in terms.

For both this Court and the Austin Court of Appeals, Langley v. State, 129 Tex.Cr.R. 254, 86 S.W.2d 755 (1935), is the common genesis of notions of propriety in alluding to “demeanor of a testifying witness.” The opinion of this Court reads Langley as supporting only “the narrow principle that a party may allude to ... the demeanor of a testifying…