Billy Wayne Dowden, Sr., Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction for capital murder, holding that the trial court was not required to charge the jury on the lesser included offenses of aggravated assault, criminally negligent homicide, or involuntary manslaughter, that an instructed verdict of not guilty was unwarranted, that the voir dire on the causation theory under §6.04 was not an abuse of discretion, and that the statutory definition of intent under §6.03(a) did not shift the burden of proof to the defendant. Justice Clinton dissented, arguing that the causation analysis improperly imported California law.