Lawrence, Terence Chadwick

• Court: Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
• Decided: November 21, 2007
• Docket: PD-0236-07
• Status: Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

OF TEXAS

NO. PD-0236-07 TERENCE CHADWICK LAWRENCE, Appellant

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

ON APPELLANT'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

FROM THE FIFTH COURT OF APPEALS

DALLAS COUNTY

Johnson, J., filed a concurring opinion.

C O N C U R R I N G O P I N I O N

I concur in the judgment of the Court for the reasons stated in Judge Cochran's concurring opinion. The statute challenged by appellant is neither void for vagueness nor deficient in notice, thus it is not facially unconstitutional. That is not to say, however, that the statute could not be unconstitutional as applied. In this case, it is clear that appellant knew that his victim was pregnant, that he killed her because she was pregnant, and that he intended to kill the fetus. However, it is easy to foresee that there will be cases involving the stranger-on-stranger murder of a woman who is in the early stages of pregnancy and who would not appear to be pregnant to even a careful observer. In such a case, the statute may be unconstitutional as applied because the defendant did not have actual knowledge of the pregnancy and could not, therefore, have intended the death of the fetus. Because the opinion of the Court does not limit its finding that the statute is constitutional to facial constitutionality, I concur in the judgment only.

Filed: November 21, 2007

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