252 S.W. 562 | Tex. Crim. App. | 1923
Lead Opinion
Appellant was convicted in the District Court of Gillespie County of theft of property of the value of more than fifty dollars, and his punishment fixed at three years in the penitentiary.
Appellant was tried in February, 1922. Complaint is made of the fact that he was not allowed to show that his general reputation as a law-abiding citizen was good prior to his return from the army. This was offered as bearing upon his application for a suspended sentence, appellant having pleaded guilty to the offense charged. The testimony was offered from witness Townsend and may be discussed in connection with further testimony offered from witness Fowler to the effect that appellant's general reputation as a law-abiding citizen was good prior to July 1921, that being about the date of a burglary committed by appellant and some associates, which fact was not denied.
When an application for suspended sentence is presented and the reputation of the accused as a peaceable, law-abiding citizen made an issue, the test is his present reputation. Wilson v. State, 83 Tex.Crim. Rep.; Wagley v. State,
We do not believe the trial court was called upon to permit appellant to show that he was not of the highest order of mentality. Appellant offered testimony the effect of which would have been to show him a person easily influenced by his associates. The law of a suspended sentence is bottomed on the hope of reformation of the offender, and certainly evidence whose tendency would be to show that the accused was one easily persuaded to crime by any criminal, would not strengthen the belief on the part of the jury that to give him a suspended sentence would reform him. *635
Finding no error in the record, the judgment will be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Addendum
Appellant urges that we erred in upholding the action of the trial court in the two matters discussed in our original opinion. No authorities are cited in support of the motion. We have again reviewed each proposition. We think it unsafe to vary from the established rules of procedure in applying the law in the trial of cases under recent enactments. A tendency to let down the bars or open wider the gates for the admission of evidence upon the issue of suspended sentence, is observed in some of the authorities. We have endeavored to correct such tendency as far as we may. Johnson v. State, 91 Tex.Crim. Rep., 241 S.W. Rep. 484. In the case of Wagley v. State,
The motion for rehearing will be overruled.
Overruled. *636