Agenda

• Today: Texas Judiciary

• Next class

    - Criminal Policy, Due Process
    - Module 4 Quiz
    - Turn in all written work

• Final Exam: Wednesday 8 AM

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

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

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