Robert F. Hancock v. Sheriff Bill Decker

In this appeal from the denial of a petition for habeas corpus, Robert F. Hancock, the prisoner, contends that he was unlawfully convicted of a felony theft in that the corporeal personal property he was accused of taking did not have a value in excess of $50, as required by Texas law. We affirm.

Hancock, an employee of Texas Instruments Automatic Computer Corporation, photocopied fifty-nine computer programs belonging to his employer. He attempted to sell these to Texaco, one of T. I.’s clients, for five million dollars. At the state trial and in the court below, Hancock, noting that no…