Barnes v. State
Texas Supreme Court
Appeal from Harrison. Tried ‘ below before the Hon. M. D. Ector. Mrs. Barnes was charged with the murder of her husband, in the county of Harrison, on the 4th day of February, A. D. 1874. On the morning of the day on which the murder was committed, Barnes was seen quite drunk in a grocery, in company with a negro about five feet seven inches high, who was sober. Barnes being unable to walk, was carried to his home by this negro, assisted by one of the witnesses.
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Appeal from Harrison. Tried ‘ below before the Hon. M. D. Ector. Mrs. Barnes was charged with the murder of her husband, in the county of Harrison, on the 4th day of February, A. D. 1874. On the morning of the day on which the murder was committed, Barnes was seen quite drunk in a grocery, in company with a negro about five feet seven inches high, who was sober. Barnes being unable to walk, was carried to his home by this negro, assisted by one of the witnesses. On reaching Barnes’ home, he “fell in, or was put in,” and was left by the witness lying on the floor, helplessly drunk, being…
1Opinion of the Court
Moore, Associate Justice.
To justify a conviction upon circumstantial evidence alone, the facts relied upon must be absolutely incompatible with the innocence of the accused, and incapable of explanation upon any other reasonable hypothesis than that of guilt.
*345Whatever suspicion may be aroused against appellant by some of the facts disclosed in the record, and although her conduct may not have been entirely consistent in all respects with what we may think it should have been, if the theory of her counsel furnishes the correct explanation of the transaction, still, when all the facts as now…
2Cited by12 opinions
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- Masterson v. Harris County Houston Ship Channel Nav. Dist.Texas Commission of Appeals · 1929
- Anderson v. StateCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas · 1919
- Belcher v. StateCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas · 1913
- Gonzales v. StateCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas · 1914
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