Hicks v. State

OPINION ON STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

W.C. DAVIS, Judge.

Appellant1 was indicted for capital murder. He was convicted of the lesser includ*330ed offense of criminally negligent homicide, a misdemeanor. The court assessed punishment at one year’s confinement.

The cause was reversed by the 13th Court of Appeals (Corpus Christi) in an unpublished opinion delivered November 30,1981, for fundamental error in allowing the State to waive the death penalty.

The Court of Appeals relied upon our opinions in Batten v. State, 533 S.W.2d 788 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Ex Parte Dowden, 580 S.W.2d 364…