Spakes v. State

OPINION ON STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

A jury convicted Appellant of escape and assessed his punishment at sixty years imprisonment after finding that he was a habitual offender. This conviction was reversed because the trial court failed to submit a requested instruction on the defense of necessity. Spakes v. State, 891 S.W.2d 7 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1994).

The State’s petition was granted to determine whether a predicate to the defense of necessity, as applicable to the offense of escape, includes an attempt to surrender once the immediate threat justifying the escape has ceased.…