Richard Aldon Burrell, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Burrell's conviction for assault with intent to murder a peace officer because the trial court improperly amended the indictment after trial commenced by deleting the phrases “and with his malice aforethought” and “by shooting him with a gun.” The Court held that those phrases were descriptive of the offense and their removal constituted a substantive amendment prohibited by Article 28.10. A dissent argued that the majority mischaracterized the amendment and would have affirmed the conviction, while a concurrence joined the reversal on the narrower ground that the firearm phrase was an impermissible amendment.