In re Rangel

570 S.W.3d 968
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 13, 2019
DocketNo. 10-19-00014-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 570 S.W.3d 968 (In re Rangel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Rangel, 570 S.W.3d 968 (Tex. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

REX D. DAVIS, Justice

In this original proceeding,1 Relator Jerry Rangel seeks mandamus relief in the form of compelling the Respondent trial judge to rule on Rangel's motion for post-conviction DNA testing under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 64.2 We requested a response to Relator's petition, which the State has now filed. Having reviewed Relator's petition and the State's response, we deny Relator's petition.

"A court with mandamus authority 'will grant mandamus relief if relator can demonstrate that the act sought to be compelled is purely 'ministerial' and that relator has no other adequate legal remedy.' " In re Piper , 105 S.W.3d 107, 109 (Tex. App.-Waco 2003, orig. proceeding) (quoting State ex rel. Rosenthal v. Poe , 98 S.W.3d 194, 197-99 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003) (orig. proceeding) ). Consideration of a motion properly filed and before the court is ministerial. State ex rel. Hill v. Ct. of Apps. for the 5th Dist. , 34 S.W.3d 924, 927 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001) (orig. proceeding). A trial judge has a reasonable time to perform the ministerial duty of considering and ruling on a motion properly filed and before the judge. In re Chavez , 62 S.W.3d 225, 228 (Tex. App.-Amarillo 2001, orig. proceeding). But that duty generally does not arise until the movant has brought the motion to the trial judge's attention, and mandamus will not lie unless the movant makes such a showing and the trial judge then fails or refuses to rule within a reasonable time. See id.

Rangel bears the burden of providing this Court with a sufficient record to establish his right to mandamus relief. See In re Mullins , 10-09-00143-CV, 2009 WL 2959716, at *1, n. 1 (Tex. App.-Waco Sept. 16, 2009, orig. proceeding) (mem. op.); In re Blakeney , 254 S.W.3d 659, 661 (Tex. App.-Texarkana 2008, orig. proceeding). There is no record showing that Rangel has brought his petition to the attention of the trial judge and that the trial judge has then failed or refused to rule within a reasonable time. In its response to Rangel's petition, the State provides exhibits that reflect that the petition was forwarded to the Court of Criminal Appeals the date it was received. Accordingly, we deny the petition for writ of mandamus.

*(Chief Justice Gray concurring)

TOM GRAY, Chief Justice, Concurring *970Over a year ago, the defendant filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing under Chapter 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. It has not been ruled upon. It appears that even after this Court requested a response to the petition for writ of mandamus, it nevertheless still has not been ruled upon. So now we must address the merits of a petition for writ of mandamus.

The State goes to great efforts in its response to show that the motion was forwarded to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Why? The Court notes that the motion was promptly forwarded to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Why? Both are good questions not addressed by the Court. It was forwarded to the Court of Criminal Appeals apparently because Rangel put the letter "A" after the cause number on the Chapter 64 DNA testing motion (he contends in his response that the Clerk did it). The cause number plus the letter "A" is apparently the number assigned to his post-conviction application for an 11.07 writ. We have been repeatedly told that we should determine what a document is by the content, not the title, of the document. Here, both the content and the title confirm that the document is a Chapter 64 post-conviction motion for DNA testing.

It is unfortunate that the number applied to the motion matched the docket number for the post-conviction 11.07 application. If nothing had happened to cause this oversight to come to the attention of the clerk and the State, and if the response to the petition had been more in the nature of: "We see what happened. We'll get right on that Chapter 64 DNA motion so that you do not have to spend your time addressing the petition for a writ of mandamus," I would be okay with what we do here, now, in this proceeding. But, after more than 30 days had passed after the motion was filed, Rangel moved for findings and conclusions on his DNA motion; doing what he could to bring attention to the motion he had previously filed. It seems that no one did anything in response to this motion. No, "Ooops, we forwarded that motion to the Court of Criminal Appeals as part of the 11.07 writ, which it clearly was not intended to be part of." Nothing was done. So finally, Rangel files a petition for a writ of mandamus. Maybe his better course of action was to write the clerk, and the court coordinator, and the trial court judge asking about the status and possibly requesting a hearing on his motion. But a "hearing" or even a request for a hearing would have been premature. It is important to notice that the statute requires the trial court and the State to take action, prior to any hearing, upon receipt of the motion. TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN . art. 64.02 (West 2018).1

The State, as the real party in interest in this proceeding, and the Court, fault Rangel for not bringing forth any evidence that his motion for post-conviction DNA testing was actually brought to the attention of the trial court. Technically that is correct. But then ask yourself; how exactly is an inmate supposed to do that? It is not *971like he can take a copy to the trial court's office, courtroom, or home to "serve" the trial court with a copy of the motion. And no matter how many letters the inmate writes, in all likelihood those letters are going straight to a file in the clerk's office. Although those letters may possibly get as far as the court coordinator, they do not necessarily make it to the trial court, even if addressed for delivery only to the trial court judge. But even then, how is the inmate supposed to get any evidence that the trial court was actually made aware of the motion? This Court requested a response from the parties. The trial court is a party, the respondent. We could infer from that procedure the trial court is now aware of the motion. Maybe Rangel can now use this proceeding and that inference to compel a ruling if one is not timely received after this Court's opinion and judgment issue.

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Bluebook (online)
570 S.W.3d 968, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-rangel-texapp-2019.