Ex Parte Eddie James Johnson

Summary

The Court held that under the 1985 amendment to Article 37.10, V.A.C.C.P., a jury verdict that includes an unauthorized fine must be reformed to delete the fine, and applied this retroactively to a 1980 aggravated robbery case, removing the $10,000 fine in Cause No. 314984 while leaving the authorized $5,000 fine in Cause No. 314983 untouched. Several dissenting judges argued the amendment should not apply retroactively.