Owings v. Texas

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Appellant Richard Owings, Jr. was convicted by a jury of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to thirty years in prison. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that “the trial court committed harmful constitutional error in failing to require the State to make an election of the incident upon which it relied for conviction.” The Court of Criminal Appeals agreed the trial court committed constitutional error by failing to require the State to make an election of the incident upon which it relied for conviction. However, the Court disagreed with the appellate court’s harm analysis, holding that, under the particular facts of this case, the trial court’s erroneous failure to require the State to make an election was harmless. The Court reversed and remanded this case to the appellate court to address Appellant’s remaining point of error. View "Owings v. Texas" on Justia Law