StateProsecutingAtty

Ballester, PD-0839-25, granted 3-5: Does provoking the difficulty have to be pretextual to warrant the statutory instruction or for the jury to reject self-defense on that basis?

Stocker, PD-0233-25, granted 2-26: Can an unverified anonymous tip alone satisfy Baldwin’s required search-warrant nexus between the crimes investigated and the phone? Did the warrant affidavit as a whole establish the nexus?

New Professional Ethics Opinion 709 addresses the duties and obligations of "appearance attorneys" and hiring attorneys. See the excerpt below. The opinion should be posted on the Texas Center for Legal Ethics website tomorrow. legalethicstexas.com/resources/opin…

Both high courts have approved New Rule 31.8, which governs the State's expedited appeal from an order granting bail. txcourts.gov/media/1462090/…

Barrera, PD-0541-25, granted 1-29: Should Irby’s reasons for being entitled to cross a State’s witness on his probationary status be expanded beyond bias or a reason to testify for the State? Should Irby otherwise be modified?

Mason, PD-0643-25, granted 1-29: “Should the Court reconsider or clarify any aspect of its decision in Ex parte Delaney, 207 S.W.3d 794 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006)?”

Williams, PD-0692-25, granted 1-29: Did the COA err by addressing a claim raised for the first time after remand, when the Court of Criminal Appeals directed it to consider only the remaining points of error raised on original submission?

Nguyen, PD-0523-25, granted 1-22: Is Wells binding authority? Should the denial of the suppression motion of the geo-fence warrant evidence be upheld under the third-party doctrine?

Crumley, PD-0651-25, granted 1-22: Did the lower court err by applying the heightened directly-rebut-or-truly negate requirement for mental-disease evidence to the D’s brothers’ testimony about D's intellectual impairment?

Madas, PD-0621-25, granted 1-15: “Contrary to the court of appeals’s holding, review of the videos shows appellant’s consent to search was voluntary and nothing like the oppressive 4-on-1 situation described in Carmouche v. State, 10 S.W.3d 323 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000).”

The Court of Criminal Appeals issued opinions today: search.txcourts.gov/handdown.aspx?…

Staley, PD-0202-25, granted 12/11: Does DV homicide with prior discord & digital photo of the victim’s prior injury establish a nexus to search other devices in the home? If evidence from the devices was wrongly admitted, was there harm and was 44.2(b) the proper harm standard?

Williams, PD-0479-25, granted 11-20: Can extraneous offenses be admitted to rebut a defensive theory (in D's police statement) that the State elicited? Did photos of D with firearms have 404(b) relevance without evidence describing the murder weapon?

Registration is now open for the 2026 UT Dawson Conference on Criminal Appeals. Scholarships from the SBOT Criminal Justice Section are available at txbarcjs.org/?page_id=35

Barber, PD-0510-25, granted 11-6: Can post-accident-investigation facts be used to satisfy Art. 14.03(d)'s "within the officer's presence or view" requirement for an extra-jurisdiction warrantless arrest for intoxication manslaughter when the officer didn't see the accident?

Young, PD-0526-25, granted 10/30: If there are multiple reasons a trial court’s ruling is wrong, must the appellant complain about all of them on appeal or forfeit review?

Hammons, PD-0574-25, granted 10-30: “Is a point of error on direct appeal of a criminal case waived if harm is not briefed?”

Collins, PD-0452-25, granted 10/16: Can a deadly weapon finding be obtained for a weapon-possession offense when the facts show not only mere possession but the actual firing of a weapon during the offense?

Columbus, PD-0638-25, granted 10-16: Does art. 42.013 require a family violence finding to be made in open court (permitting an objection) before it can be entered in the judgment? Is a FV finding part of the sentence, such that it must be orally announced?

Garcia, PD-0556-25, granted 10-9: Has the State proven a prior assault involves family violence if the listed victim’s last name matches the defendant’s and her first name matches a marriage license (also with his name) obtained six days earlier?