Jackson v. State
In the defendant's manslaughter trial, the jury charge during
guilt/innocence did not contain an improper comment on the weight of the evidence when
it stated that manslaughter was a second-degree felony and that deadly
conduct, which both parties incorrectly believed to be a
lesser-included offense of manslaughter, was labeled as a third-degree
felony. During voir dire, the trial court told the jury that the defendant
was charged with manslaughter, naming it as a second-degree felony, and
later informed them of the range of punishment for a second-degree
felony. While the degree of the crime and the severity of potential
punishment is, at best, not relevant to the guilt/innocence stage,
because the jury had already been made aware of all this information
from the beginning of the trial, a later delivery of the same
information by including it in the charge on guilt/innocence was not
harmful.
