Hooper v. State
- Decided
- January 31, 2007
- Docket
- PD-1352-05
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Texas
Cited 5,494 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that "juries are not permitted to come to conclusions based on mere speculation or factually unsupported inferences or presumptions” — Cary, Stacy Stine (2015)
- recognizing that juries may draw multiple reasonable inferences “as long as each inference is supported by the evidence presented at trial” — Adrien Lee Caldwell v. State (2010)
- recognizing that circumstantial evidence is as probative as direct evidence in establishing guilt and may alone be sufficient to establish guilt — Timothy Lee Seaver v. State (2014)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
OPINION MEYERS, J., delivered the opinion of the unanimous Court.
Appellant Reginald Hooper was convicted by a jury of aggravated assault of a public servant and sentenced to 30 years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Correctional Institution Division. The State presented evidence at the guilt phase of the trial that during March 2004 Appellant was the getaway driver from an aggravated robbery and that a passenger in Appellant’s vehicle, one of the robbers, shot at a Parks and Wildlife game warden while trying to flee.
Appellant appealed, asserting that the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction and that the trial court misdirected the jury about the law regarding weapons findings and parole eligibility. Addressing only the legal sufficiency claim, the court of appeals reversed the guilty verdict and rendered a judgment of acquittal after finding the evidence legally insufficient to support Appellant’s conviction. The Chief Justice dissented. He argued that the verdict was not irrational because any inferences necessary to support the conviction are reasonable and supported by the record. [1]
Cite this
Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9 (2007)Read the full opinion
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