Hicks v. State

151 S.W.3d 672, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 9549, 2004 WL 2406596

Opinions

OPINION

FELIPE REYNA, Justice.

In 1998, Tracy Hicks pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and true to an enhancement allegation paragraph. As a result, he was sentenced to forty years’ incarceration. In 2001, Hicks filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing. The trial court granted Hicks’s motion and ordered the testing. After the testing was completed, the trial court found that the DNA results were unfavorable to Hicks. Hicks appeals from this ruling. We affirm.

ISSUES RELATING TO HICKS’S 1993 CONVICTION

Hicks’s first and second issues and his fourth through seventh issues directly attack his 1993 conviction. At the time that Hicks filed his DNA motion, this Court’s jurisdiction was confined to appeals of “findings” under articles 64.03 and 64.04 regarding post-conviction DNA hearings.¹ See Wolfe v. State, 120 S.W.3d 368, 372 (Tex.Crim.App.2003); Act of Apr. 3, 2001, 77th Leg., R.S., ch. 2 § 2, 2001 Tex. Gen. Laws 2, 4 (amended 2003) (current version at Tex.Code CRIM. Proc. Ann. art. 64.05 (Vernon Supp.2004)). The jurisdiction granted under chapter 64 does not extend to collateral attacks on the judgment of conviction. Lopez v. State, 114 S.W.3d 711, 714-15 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 2003, no pet.). Hicks’s issues relating to the 1993 conviction do not arise from a chapter 64 proceeding, and as a result, we do not have jurisdiction over them. Id. Therefore, we dismiss Hicks’s first and second issues and his fourth through seventh issues for want of jurisdiction. See Gray v. State, 134 S.W.3d 471, 472 (Tex.App.-Waco 2004, no pet.).

Footnotes

1

. In 2003, the Legislature changed the law to allow an appeal under chapter 64 in its entirety. Tex Code Crim. Proc. art. 64.05 (Vernon Supp.2004). The current law applies to appellants who submit a motion for DNA testing on or after September 1, 2003. Hicks submitted his motion in 2001. Therefore, the former law applies to Hicks’s case. See Wolfe v. State, 120 S.W.3d 368, 370-72 (Tex.Crim.App.2003).