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Ex Parte Sampson

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
Mar 7, 1984
665 S.W.2d 487 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984)

Opinion

No. 69226.

March 7, 1984.

Appeal from the 179th Criminal District Court, Harris County, I.D. McMaster, J.

Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before the court en banc.


OPINION


This is an application for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to Art. 11.07, V.A.C.C.P. Applicant was convicted of forgery. He now contends his indictment was fundamentally defective for failure to allege that the purported maker of the forged instrument did not authorize applicant's act.

Applicant relies upon cases which arose under the present penal code, but the instant case arises under the former penal code, Art. 996, which denounced forgery by passing.

Forgery cases which arise under V.A.T.S., Penal Code, Sec. 32.21 require an allegation that the purported maker did not authorize the act, Landry v. State, 583 S.W.2d 620, 626-27 (Opinion on Rehearing 1979). Those arising under former code Art. 979, which denounced forgery by making, required the allegation that the act was without lawful authority, Smith v. State, 282 S.W.2d 876, 162 Tex.Crim. R. (1955), but the former code, unlike the present one, distinguished between forgery by making and forgery by passing as separate crimes defined in separate articles. In Brown v. State, 132 S.W. 789, 60 Tex.Cr. 505 (Tex.Cr.App. 1910), a challenge based upon the failure of an indictment to allege lack of lawful authority in a case arising from the predecessor to Art. 996 was rejected by this court.

We decline to make retroactive the merger of the various species of forgery accomplished by the enactment of the current penal code. The relief sought is denied.


Summaries of

Ex Parte Sampson

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
Mar 7, 1984
665 S.W.2d 487 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984)
Case details for

Ex Parte Sampson

Case Details

Full title:Ex parte Paul SAMPSON

Court:Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Date published: Mar 7, 1984

Citations

665 S.W.2d 487 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984)