Rebecca Ann Shaw, Appellant v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the court of appeals' judgment upholding Shaw's conviction for recklessly causing serious bodily injury to her infant grandson, holding that the court below applied the correct legal standard for deciding when evidence 'raises' a defense and that the trial court properly refused a jury instruction on the Penal Code § 22.04(k) 'Good Samaritan' defense. The court construed that defense as confession-and-avoidance: Shaw could earn the instruction only by showing evidence rationally supporting that she harbored the requisite culpable mental state yet administered emergency care in good faith and with reasonable care, and because her defensive posture merely negated culpability—she performed CPR without conscious awareness of any risk of head injury—the defense was not raised. Johnson, J., and Holcomb, J., filed dissenting opinions (Womack, J., also dissented without a separate writing), contending that precedent required submission of any defense raised by evidence of any strength and that the record met that minimal threshold.