A New Evidentiary Standard for Criminal Appellate Review: Clewis v. State

Authors

Earl R. Waddell III
Tracy L. Abell

Publication Date

3-1-1997

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In Clewis v. State, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals finally addressed the conflict regarding proper appellate review of factual sufficiency of the evidence. The Clewis decision adopted Stone and established, for the first time since the 1981 amendments, the constitutional power and duty of the courts of appeals to review the factual sufficiency of the evidence in appropriate cases. In attempting to predict the effect of Clewis on review of noncapital criminal cases in the courts of appeals and death penalty Cases in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, this article examines the historical precedents of selected civil cases reversed for factual insufficiency. Also discussed are potential conflicts and the appropriate standard for review. Although defendants after Clewis may raise the issue of factual sufficiency in the courts of appeals, the court in Clewis did not address whether the court of criminal appeals has the authority to conduct such a review. Thus, there could be problems for defendants whose cases come under the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal's original jurisdiction for capital murder and habeas corpus.

DOI

10.37419/TWLR.V3.I2.1

First Page

235

Last Page

281

Recommended Citation

Earl R. Waddell III & Tracy L. Abell, A New Evidentiary Standard for Criminal Appellate Review: Clewis v. State, 3 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 235 (1997).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.37419/TWLR.V3.I2.1