James Paul Burns, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court affirmed the conviction for capital murder and the death sentence, rejecting the appellant's challenges to the constitutionality of Article 1257, the definition of capital murder, the indictment's sufficiency, the jury selection process under Witherspoon, the denial to further question jurors, the admission of certain evidence, and the lack of requested jury instructions. The dissent (Roberts, joined by Phillips) argues that the jury selection violated Witherspoon and should have resulted in reversal.