Jose Guadalupe Rodriguez Elizondo, Appellant v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed the Thirteenth Court of Appeals' affirmation of Jose Guadalupe Rodriguez Elizondo's murder conviction and remanded for a new trial because the trial court improperly gave a provocation instruction without sufficient evidence of all three Smith elements, and that error caused some harm. The majority held the provocation instruction was erroneous and harmful. Justice Yeary, dissenting, would have remanded the case to the appellate court for a new harm analysis rather than ordering a new trial.