Breland v. State

OPINION

DALLY, Commissioner.

The conviction is for murder with malice; the punishment, death.

The punishment of the appellant has been commuted from death to life imprisonment by the Honorable Preston Smith, Governor of Texas, by proclamation dated November 22, 1972. This has rendered moot the appellant’s first two grounds of error concerning the assessment of the death penalty.

The appellant’s third ground of error urges for the first time on appeal that the trial court improperly defined the term “murder with malice” in the charge submitted to the jury. 1 The appellant argues that three…