Winfrey v. Texas (Original)
Annotate this CaseAppellant Megan Winfrey was sixteen years old in 2004. In 2007, after an investigation that included dog-scent lineups, appellant and her father and brother were taken into custody and charged with the 2004 murder of Murray Burr, a man who worked at the local high school that appellant attended, who was found dead in his home with numerous stab wounds and multiple sharp- and blunt-force injuries. Appellant's indictment contained two counts: capital murder during the course of robbery and conspiracy to commit capital murder. Her father and brother were named as co-conspirators in the conspiracy count. A jury convicted her of both counts. The trial court sentenced appellant to life imprisonment for the capital-murder count and forty-five years' imprisonment for the conspiracy count. The court of appeals affirmed the convictions, with one justice dissenting. "Basing a finding of appellant's guilt on this evidence and all of the other evidence is, at best, 'mere theorizing or guessing' about appellant's possible guilt rather than a reasonable inference based upon evidence and facts presented." After reviewing all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the guilty verdict, the Supreme Court held that the evidence merely raised a suspicion of appellant's guilt and was legally insufficient to support a conviction of capital murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Furthermore, the Court found the evidence in the record was insufficient to sustain the agreement element of the conspiracy statute. Appellant was thus entitled to her requested relief regarding her convictions.
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