Galitz v. State

617 S.W.2d 949, 1981 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1104
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 1, 1981
Docket66363, 66364
StatusPublished
Cited by332 cases

This text of 617 S.W.2d 949 (Galitz v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Galitz v. State, 617 S.W.2d 949, 1981 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1104 (Tex. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING

CLINTON, Judge.

On original submission of these causes, appellant set forth in each a single ground of error contesting the legality of the search of his person and, ultimately, his apartment, which produced fruits, the possession of which comprised the forbidden conduct of which he was convicted. A panel of the Court, in a per curiam opinion, Tex.Cr.App., 613 S.W.2d 302, declined to reach the merits of the issue presented, determining respectively that evidence obtained independently of the search was introduced to support the conviction in Cause No. 66,363, and that appellant’s failure to raise the search contention by written pretrial motion in Cause No. 66,364 constituted a forfeit of his right to appeal under the provisions of Article 44.02, V.A.C. C.P. Each'case was tried upon appellant’s plea of guilty. 1

On careful consideration of the entire records in these causes, we are constrained to *951 agree with appellant that the panel was in error on both counts and, thus, his motions for rehearing must impel an examination of the merits of his grounds.

The treatment of these causes by the panel on original submission, as well as the stout motion for rehearing assailing it, 2 indicate a full discussion of the law governing the right of appeal in cases tried before the court upon a plea of guilty, which we now turn to undertake.

As was fully explained in Garcia v. Dial, 596 S.W.2d 524 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), unless the power or authority of a court to perform a contemplated act can be found in the Constitution of this State or laws enacted thereunder, that court is without “subject matter jurisdiction” to so perform. Thus the power of this Court to perform the contemplated act of considering an appeal from a criminal conviction obtained in a district court of this State is solely determined by legislative authorization; 3 in short, the right to appeal in this State is a statutory right. Ex parte Paprskar v. State, 573 S.W.2d 525 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Savage v. State, 237 S.W.2d 315 (Tex.Cr.App.1950).

And so it was until 1977 that “a defendant in any criminal action [had] the right to appeal.. . . ” Article 44.02, V.A.C.C.P. But then this broad grant of the right to appeal was narrowed as regards would-be appellants who choose to enter pleas of guilty before the trial court and are sentenced within the terms of a plea bargaining agreement; for them new jurisdictional requisites were established by amendment, effective August 29, 1977:

“A defendant in any criminal action has the right of appeal under the rules hereinafter prescribed, provided however, before a defendant who has been convicted upon either his plea of guilty or plea of nolo contendere before the court and the court, upon the election of the defendant, assesses punishment and the punishment does not exceed the punishment recommended by the prosecutor and agreed to by the defendant and his attorney may prosecute his appeal, he must have permission of the trial court, except on those matters which have been raised by written motion filed prior to trial.” 4

Thus the statute presently in effect places a burden on one who would appeal from a negotiated proceeding before the court to make manifest upon the record the following requisites in order to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court under the proviso: (1) existence of a plea bargaining agreement with the State; 5 (2) punishment assessed by the trial court at or within that recommended by the prosecutor 6 and agreed to personally by the defendant; 7 (3) the basis of the appellate ground of error has been presented in writing, pretrial, to the trial court for consideration OR the trial court has given permission to pursue an *952 appeal in general or upon specific contentions. Absent the showing of all three of these jurisdictional requisites there is no power extant in this Court to take cognizance of issues “appealed” by appellants so situated. Haney v. State, 588 S.W.2d 913 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Mitchell v. State, 586 S.W.2d 491 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Ferguson v. State, 571 S.W.2d 908 (Tex.Cr.App.1979).

So in the jurisdictional sense, the present version of Article 44.02 restricts the previously unfettered appellate right of the instant class of appellants; 8 but, as a matter of appellate constraints, that appellate right has been liberalized by the amendment. For example, a rule previously applicable was as stated in Helms v. State, 484 S.W.2d 925, 927 (Tex.Cr.App.1972):

“When a plea of guilty is voluntarily and understandingly made, all nonjurisdic-tional defects including claimed deprivation of federal due process are waived. Soto v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 456 S.W.2d 389; Fierro v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 437 S.W.2d 833.” 9

See also Isam v. State, 582 S.W.2d 441 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), [holding Article 44.02, supra, abrogates former rule applied in pleas to misdemeanors].

Thus, the changes wrought by the 1977 amendment to Article 44.02, supra, touch appellate jurisdiction and, by operation thereof, some principles of appellate procedure; nothing more. And certainly, the amendment in no way serves to alter rules of evidence, or the constitutional doctrine of harmless error.

Indeed, applying settled principles to cases appealed under the Article 44.02 proviso, this Court has held that evidence derived from a contested search and seizure which is not introduced by the State to meet its burden to support the conviction on a plea with sufficient evidence, cannot form the basis for a reversal on appeal, notwithstanding an erroneous ruling on its admissibility by the trial court. Brewster v. State, 606 S.W.2d 325 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); Mitchell, supra; Ferguson, supra. 10

Similarly, the principle of “harmless error” has been applied to cases before us pursuant to the proviso: Ferguson, supra, at 910, determined that any erroneous ruling made on a pretrial motion to suppress will not vitiate the conviction, if the plea of guilty is supported by evidence “independent of the matter contested in the pretrial motion.” See also

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Bluebook (online)
617 S.W.2d 949, 1981 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galitz-v-state-texcrimapp-1981.