Nisbett v. Texas

Appellants Rex Nisbett and George Delacruz were convicted of murder in unrelated trials. The cases were factually unrelated, however, there were many factual similarities between the two, including that, in each case, the victim’s body and the murder weapon were never recovered. In Nisbett’s case, the court of appeals held the evidence to be insufficient to support the conviction and rendered a judgment of acquittal. In Delacruz’s case, a different (but overlapping) panel of that court affirmed the conviction. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted review and consolidated these cases to address the appropriate analysis when the victim’s body and the murder weapon are not found. The Court ultimately held that the evidence was legally sufficient to support both convictions. Consequently, the Court reversed the court of appeals’s judgment in Nisbett’s case and affirmed the judgment in Delacruz’s case. View "Nisbett v. Texas" on Justia Law