Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Richard Paul Mann, Appellant v. the State of Texas

March 11, 19981998 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 29

Summary

The Court vacated the judgment and remanded for further proceedings, holding that an isolated erroneous jury instruction on the burden of proof is not structural error and must be reviewed under the Abdnor/Almanza analysis rather than under Rule 81(b)(2) harmless error review. Justice Keller dissented, arguing the error was structural and the judgment should be affirmed.