Agenda

Today: The Texas Judiciary

    - Constitutional basis and comparison to Federal Judiciary
    - Structure
    - Bifurcated Appeals
    - Current events

Next Class: Judicial Ethics

    - Ethical Requirements of Judges
    - Enforcement
    - Impeachment
    

Announcements

Texas Constitution vs US Constitution

• US Constitution Article III

    - establishes the judiciary
    - lists judicial powers
    - structure of judiciary - unitary
    - One Supreme Court with inferior courts as established by Congress
    - Judges appointed and serve for life

• Texas Constitution Article V

    - establishes the judiciary
    - lists judicial powers
    - structure of judiciary - plural
    - Two top courts
    - lower courts defined in Constitution
    - Judges elected and serve for fixed terms

General Court Structure

• By type of case

    - Criminal 
    - Civil

• By level of authority

    - Trial court
    - Appellate court
    - Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals

Civil vs. Criminal Cases

Levels of Courts in Texas

Municipal

• Trial court
• Incorporated cities and towns
• May not be on record, so appeals may involve a new trial
• Larger city courts are courts of record
• City charters determine qualification and selection of judges

Levels of Courts in Texas

Justice of the Peace Courts

• Trial court
• 1 to 8 JOP Courts in each county
• Criminal and Civil jurisdiction
• No specific qualifications for Justices of the Peace

Levels of Courts in Texas

County Courts

• Trial court
• One per county required by Constitution
• Additional courts established by stature
• Criminal and civil matters

Levels of Courts in Texas

District Courts

• Trial court
• 488 courts
• one elected judge with 4-year term
• Civil matters
• Felony criminal cases

Levels of Courts in Texas: Appellate

Courts of Appeals

• 14 Courts of Appeal

• Civil and Criminal Cases

• Appeals judges elected

• 3 to 13 judges per court

    - Texarkana, El Paso, Waco, Eastland, and Tyler: 3
    - Amarillo and Beaumont: 4
    - Austin and Corpus Christi-Edinburg: 6
    - Fort Worth and San Antonio: 7
    - Houston-1st and Houston-14th: 9
    - Dallas: 13

Levels of Courts in Texas: Appellate

Bifurcated Appeals

• Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• Supreme Court of Texas

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

• Highest court of appeals for criminal matters
• Exclusive jurisdiction over automatic appeals of death penalty cases
• Judges elected in statewide elections
• Presiding Judge and eight Judges

Supreme Court of Texas

• Highest appeal court for civil cases
• Highest appeal court for juvenile cases
• Establishes rules for lower courts
• Establishes rules for the state bar
• Nine justices elected in statewide elections

Juries

• Petit juries

    - Trial juries are called "petit juries"
    - 6 members in lower courts, 12 in district courts
    - selected from registered voters and those with driver's licenses or state id cards

• Grand juries

    - Grand juries are investigative juries
    - run by District Attorneys
    - charged with determining if there is enough evidence to bring charges
    - charges called "indictments" 
    - indictment required in felony cases
    - May also return a "no bill" if there is not sufficient evidence to charge
    - 12 jurors

Current events

“Texas Lawmakers’ Unusual Attempt to Halt the Execution of a Possibly Innocent Man”¹

• Case involved both court systems, the legislature and the Governor’s office
• All appeals had already been denied in the criminal system and at the US Supreme Court
• The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had rejected a pardon

Current events

• Governor Abbott had declined to issue a 30-day reprieve, the only action he could legally take
• The Criminal Jurisprudence Committee of the Texas House of Representatives subpoenaed the defendant to appear the day after the schedule execution
• Texas Supreme Court stayed the execution
• November 15, 2024 Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the House subpoena violated separation of powers

Authorship and License

Do not submit to Quizlet, Chegg, Coursehero, or other similar commercial websites.

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

Graphics Credit: Unless otherwise noted graphics are from Norton Publishers

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.