Giles v. State

921 S.W.2d 235, 1996 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 63, 1996 WL 233688
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 8, 1996
DocketNos. 1272-95, 1273-95
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 921 S.W.2d 235 (Giles 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
Giles v. State, 921 S.W.2d 235, 1996 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 63, 1996 WL 233688 (Tex. 1996).

Opinion

OVERSTREET, Judge,

dissenting.

Appellant, Elbert Glynn Giles, was indicted on Texas state charges alleged to have been committed in El Paso County.

At the time of his indictments on state charges, appellant was in federal custody in the state of New Mexico. Appellant was convicted in a trial by jury in the 171st District Court of El Paso County.

Appellant’s convictions were affirmed by the Eighth Court of Appeals, Giles v. State, No. 08-94-00217-CR (Tex.App. El Paso, delivered September 28, 1995) and Giles v. State, 908 S.W.2d 303 (Tex.App.—El Paso, 1995). Appellant’s petition for discretionary review before the court presents one ground for review.

I.

SUMMARY OF PERTINENT FACTS

Appellant was indicted by the State of Texas on October 10, 1990. At the time of the state indictments, appellant was a federal convict serving a federal sentence in New Mexico. During the pendency of the appellant’s federal appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, the State of Texas, pursuant to the Interstate Agreement on Detainer Act (IADA), filed a detainer on appellant on May 14, 1992. On the same date, the appellant was transferred to the custody of the El Paso County Detention Facility. While appellant was still in the custody of the State of Texas, the 10th Circuit reversed Giles’ federal conviction and remanded his case for a new trial. On September 4, 1992, U.S. Marshals presented officials of the El Paso County Detention Facility with a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum. Pursuant to that writ, the El Paso County Detention Facility officials released appellant to the custody of the U.S. Marshals. On February 17, 1993, appellant pled guilty to federal charges in federal district court in New Mexico pursuant to a plea bargain agreement. On March 11, 1993, appellant was again transferred to the custody of the State of Texas at the El Paso County Detention Facility. On July 2, 1994, appellant filed a pretrial motion to dismiss the charges against him pursuant to the IADA Art. IV(c). The court denied this motion. The trial commenced on July 15, 1994. On July 20, 1994, appellant submitted another motion to dismiss based on the IADA Art. IV(e). Hearings on this motion were held on July 20, 1994 and August 5, 1994. This motion was denied also.

Appellant appealed his convictions to the Eighth Court of Appeals on three points of error on October 23, 1995. The court of appeals affirmed his convictions.

II.

COURT OF APPEALS’ DECISION

The Eighth Court of Appeals held that the coverage of the IADA Art. IV(e) did not include appellant because once appellant’s federal conviction was overturned he was no longer covered by the IADA and therefore his motion to dismiss under the IADA was properly denied. Giles v. State, No. 08-94-00217-Cr (Tex.App.—El Paso, delivered September 28, 1995) slip op. at p. 8. Primarily, the court of appeals justified this holding by its reading of Art. I of the IADA. The court construed from the full body of Art. I of the IADA that the purpose of the IADA is to protect individuals who are under a term of imprisonment from being shuttled back and forth between jurisdictions because such action interferes with their rehabilitation program.

Secondarily, the court supplemented this interpretation of the purpose of the IADA with language from Articles 111(a) and IV(a) of the IADA. These articles refer specifically to persons serving a term of imprisonment. Id. at p. 6. The court inferred from the specific language of these two sections of the IADA that the whole IADA must be subject to the restriction that is listed in two specific sections of two different articles of the IADA. Using this interpretation of the IADA, the court of appeals reasoned that the coverage of the IADA could not be applied to appellant because once his conviction was overturned he was not under federal sentence so therefore he had no plan of rehabilitation to interrupt.

Therefore, in the court of appeals opinion, it was proper for the trial court to deny [237]*237appellant’s motion to dismiss his Texas charges because: 1) it did not violate the purpose of the statute and 2) the statute was inapplicable to appellant who was not under term of imprisonment.

III.

APPELLANT’S CLAIM

Appellant argues that the Eighth Court of Appeals erred in its judgments. First, the court erred by not finding that appellant was still under the protection of the IADA. Under the IADA Art. IV(e) 1, if a state takes custody of a defendant pursuant to the IADA, then that state must resolve its charges against that defendant before he is released from the custody of that state or his charges in the first state must be dismissed. United States v. Mauro, 436 U.S. 340, 349-351, 98 S.Ct. 1834, 1841-1842, 56 L.Ed.2d 329 (1978). In this case, that was clearly not done. Appellant was in the custody of the State of Texas pursuant to a detainer under the IADA. He was released back into the custody of the federal government without his Texas charges being resolved. Under the plain language of Art. IV(e) of the IADA, the Texas charges versus the appellant must be dismissed. Since there is no Texas case clearly on point on this issue, to support this claim appellant cites rulings of sister states on this issue that clearly support his position.2

Appellant’s second main argument is that the court of appeals acknowledged the violation of Art. IV(e) in this case but used an artificial construction to avoid dismissing charges against the appellant. In page 8 of its opinion, the court of appeals berates the district attorney’s office for not having a procedure to ensure compliance with the IADA and acknowledges that “... but for the fortuitous circumstance of Giles’ change in status from a convicted prisoner to an accused no longer covered by the IADA, easily could have forced this Court to order dismissal of serious charges against Giles.” Giles v. State, No. 08-94-00217-Cr, 08-94-00217-Cr (Tex.App.—El Paso, delivered September 28, 1995, slip op. at 8). Appellant argues that this is a tacit acknowledgement of a violation of Art. IV(e) of the IADA. More importantly, since the court of appeals hangs its hat on this artificial distinction of Giles’ change in status to take him out of the coverage of the IADA, the court of appeals must be overruled. Appellant argues that this distinction between the status of prisoner under sentence and accused is not real and not decisive under the IADA. Art. IV(e) of the IADA just refers to prisoner, not prisoner under sentence. Moreover, there is no language in Art. IV(e) that would remove appellant from the coverage of the IADA. Furthermore, appellant argues that the according to Mauro, the only issue as to whether Art. IV(e) of the IADA applies to a particular prisoner once that prisoner has been moved pursuant to the IADA is whether the prisoner was released.3 There is no case or statutory support for the court of appeals’ argument that the change from prisoner under sentence to accused is a valid distinction under the IADA.

IV.
ANALYSIS OF CLAIMS

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
921 S.W.2d 235, 1996 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 63, 1996 WL 233688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giles-v-state-texcrimapp-1996.