Chance Edward Saunders, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction for murder, holding that the trial court's failure to submit a negligent homicide instruction was harmless error under the Almanza and Arline standards. The majority concluded that, given the evidence, there was no realistic probability the jury would have convicted on the lesser offense. A dissent argued that the omission was harmful and that the majority misapplied Beck and introduced an unsupported "realistic probability" test.