Clifton Charles Russell, Jr., Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court affirmed Clifton Charles Russell Jr.'s conviction for capital murder, finding the circumstantial evidence sufficient to support both the guilt finding and the jury's affirmative answers to the two special issues. The Court rejected all of Russell's sixteen grounds of error, including challenges to the indictment, the admissibility of a blood sample, extraneous robbery evidence, prejudicial opinion testimony, and the definition of "deliberately" in the special issue. A dissent argued that the trial court should have instructed the jury on the meaning of "deliberately" and that the majority erred in refusing such instruction.