Ervin Jerome Dickey, Appellant v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas affirmed the trial court's murder conviction, holding that the failure to give a multiple‑assailants self‑defense instruction was harmless error because the appellant did not show actual harm and the evidence did not require such an instruction. The majority found that Brown's individual threat justified deadly force, rendering the multiple‑assailants doctrine inapplicable. Two dissenting judges argued that the majority misapplied the harmless‑error analysis and that a proper harm analysis would require a new trial.