https://texasappeals.org/topics/due-process/Clinical descriptions of the Texas appellate decisions drawing the most press coverage.Hugo -- gohugo.ioen-usMon, 01 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0600https://texasappeals.org/2025/12/parker-v-state-capital-direct-appeal/Mon, 01 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0600https://texasappeals.org/2025/12/parker-v-state-capital-direct-appeal/The court held that the evidence was sufficient for a rational juror to find that the infant removed from the victim’s body was “born and is alive” when the defendant kidnapped or attempted to kidnap her, and it overruled twenty-four other points of error on the merits or for lack of preservation or briefing. A concurrence addressed the Penal Code’s two definitions of “individual.”https://texasappeals.org/2025/10/ex-parte-speer-capital-habeas/Mon, 06 Oct 2025 07:00:00 -0500https://texasappeals.org/2025/10/ex-parte-speer-capital-habeas/In a per curiam opinion, the court held that a Bowie County district court had no jurisdiction over a constitutional habeas application seeking to bar the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from using allegedly expired and fire-damaged pentobarbital in a scheduled execution, because such an injunction would function as a stay of execution that only the Court of Criminal Appeals may grant. The court did not reach the merits of the method-of-execution claims.https://texasappeals.org/2025/09/wmm-v-trump-alien-enemies-act-panel/Mon, 22 Sep 2025 07:00:00 -0500https://texasappeals.org/2025/09/wmm-v-trump-alien-enemies-act-panel/A divided panel held that the President’s fact-findings under the 1798 Act are unreviewable but the statutory labels attached to them are not, and that the findings in Proclamation No. 10903 do not describe an invasion or predatory incursion. Two judges concluded that, on the current record, the Government’s updated seven-day notice satisfies due process; the court remanded for evidence on a sufficient timeframe.https://texasappeals.org/2025/09/ex-parte-charette-rehearing/Mon, 08 Sep 2025 07:00:00 -0500https://texasappeals.org/2025/09/ex-parte-charette-rehearing/On the State’s motion for rehearing, the court withdrew its September 2024 opinion and affirmed the denial of pretrial habeas relief to a former judicial candidate. It held that neither the Texas Constitution nor Government Code Chapter 571 categorically bars a criminal prosecution for election-law offenses brought without a referral from the Texas Ethics Commission or exhaustion of its civil process, while reaffirming that the habeas claim was cognizable.https://texasappeals.org/2025/05/aarp-v-trump-alien-enemies-act-injunction/Mon, 19 May 2025 07:00:00 -0500https://texasappeals.org/2025/05/aarp-v-trump-alien-enemies-act-injunction/In a per curiam opinion, the Court held that the Fifth Circuit erred in dismissing the detainees’ appeal for lack of jurisdiction, concluded that the notice given on April 18 was inadequate, and enjoined removals under the Act pending further proceedings. The opinion states that it does not address the legality of removals under the Act.https://texasappeals.org/2025/03/holberg-v-lumpkin-capital-habeas/Mon, 10 Mar 2025 07:00:00 -0500https://texasappeals.org/2025/03/holberg-v-lumpkin-capital-habeas/A divided panel held that evidence the State did not disclose—that a jailhouse witness was a paid police informant—was favorable and material impeachment evidence under Brady v. Maryland, and that the state court’s contrary ruling was an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court law. Judge Duncan dissented on materiality.https://texasappeals.org/2024/12/ex-parte-halprin-judicial-bias-new-trial/Mon, 02 Dec 2024 07:00:00 -0600https://texasappeals.org/2024/12/ex-parte-halprin-judicial-bias-new-trial/The court found by a preponderance of the evidence that the judge who presided over Halprin’s 2003 capital murder trial was actually biased against him because he is Jewish, held that actual judicial bias is structural error requiring no showing of harm, and remanded for a new trial. A second claim was dismissed as an abuse of the writ.