Karl D. Johnson, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed the Amarillo Court of Appeals' affirmation of Karl D. Johnson's conviction for injury to a child and remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal. The reversal was based on the State's failure to prove the corpus delicti, the intentional conduct element, and to exclude all reasonable hypotheses of innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. The Court also declined to address the expert testimony issue because the conviction was unsupported. Justice Davis concurred, noting the evidence might support a lesser offense but not the charged intentional injury.