Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Rabb v. State, PD-1643-12

Tampering: To swallow may be to steal, but it does not necessarily equate to destruction.
_________________________________________________________________________________
IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS




NO. PD-1643-12



RICHARD LEE RABB, Appellant


v.


THE STATE OF TEXAS




ON STATE'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

FROM THE SEVENTH COURT OF APPEALS


ROCKWALL COUNTY




Meyers, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Price, Womack, Johnson, Keasler, and Hervey, JJ., joined. Cochran, J., filed a concurring opinion. Alcala, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Keller, P.J., joined. 


O P I N I O N


Appellant, Richard Lee Rabb, was convicted of tampering with physical evidence under Section 37.09(a)(1) of the Texas Penal Code and sentenced to six years of confinement. The Seventh Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's judgment of conviction and rendered a judgment of acquittal. Rabb v. State, 387 S.W.3d 67, 73 (Tex. App. - Amarillo 2012). The State filed a petition for discretionary review asking that we consider (1) whether the court of appeals erred in failing to find overlap in the terms "conceals" and "destroys," (2) whether the court of appeals erred in not permitting the fact finder to infer the evidence was destroyed, and (3) whether the court of appeals was required to reform the judgment to a conviction on a lesser-included offense rather than acquit. We granted the State's petition in order to consider these issues. We now hold that while there is some overlap between the terms "conceals" and "destroys" for purposes of Section 37.09(a), no rational trier of fact could have found that Appellant destroyed the evidence in this case. However, because the court of appeals did not have the benefit of our recent opinion in Thornton v. State, 425 S.W.3d 289 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014), we remand the case for the court of appeals to consider whether reformation of the judgment is required.

FACTS

Appellant was shopping in a Wal-mart store in Rockwall with his step-brother, James Reynolds, and their mother. Appellant and Reynolds were both in the electronics section of the store, but some distance from each other, when a Wal-mart asset-protection coordinator observed Reynolds select items from the shelves in a suspicious manner. The employee then watched as Reynolds walked to another section of the store, unwrapped the merchandise, and hid it in his clothing. While observing this, the asset protection coordinator attempted to contact additional employees for backup. He had difficulty getting a response, so he called the police and requested that an officer come to the store. Once Reynolds exited the check-out area without paying for the items in his clothing, he was detained by store employees. When questioned about who else was with him, Reynolds described his step-brother, Appellant.

In the meantime, Appellant had continued shopping, unaware that Reynolds had been detained for shoplifting. After Appellant paid for his items and was exiting the store, a police officer who had responded to the call to the store approached him. The events that followed were captured by the store's security camera and shown to the court while witnesses narrated. The officer explained to Appellant that Reynolds was in custody for stealing merchandise and asked Appellant if he had taken anything from the store without paying. When Appellant responded that he had not, the officer asked for consent to search him. Appellant consented by immediately turning around and placing his hands in the air. The officer was conducting a pat-down search and removing items from Appellant's pockets when one of the employees standing nearby noticed the corner of a plastic baggie in Appellant's hand. The employee notified the officer. When the officer went to retrieve the baggie, Appellant put the baggie in his mouth.

The officer demanded that Appellant spit out the baggie, but Appellant refused. The officer then attempted to restrain Appellant to keep him from swallowing the baggie. Appellant resisted, and a second officer who had been summoned to the store tasered Appellant multiple times, eventually rendering Appellant submissive and unconscious. At some point during the altercation, Appellant swallowed the baggie and its contents.
Although Appellant regained consciousness quickly, an ambulance was called to the scene. The medical report shows that Appellant told the medic that the baggie "contained pills that were not prescribed to him, but would not state exactly what they were. He originally said pain pills, but later said they were OTC meds and it was about four of them." No one made any attempt to retrieve the items that Appellant swallowed.
The State charged Appellant with violating Section 37.09 of the Penal Code by "knowing that an investigation was in progress, . . . intentionally or knowingly destroy[ing] a plastic baggie with intent to impair its availability as evidence in the investigation." The trial court convicted Appellant and sentenced him to six years of confinement.
COURT OF APPEALS

Appellant appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he destroyed the baggie or that he knew an investigation was in progress. Rabb, 387 S.W.3d at 70. The court first considered the evidence on Appellant's destruction of the baggie and addressed the definitions of "conceal" and "destroy." It reasoned that, contrary to the State's suggestion, the two terms should not be applied in a way that "maximizes their overlap" and produces a result where "every item concealed [would] also be considered destroyed." Id. at 72. While the State contended that the Appellant destroyed the baggie because his actions caused its "complete ruination," the court said that the State's definition was equating the two words simply because the item had not been recovered. Id. The court of appeals concluded that, because the evidence showed only the baggie's location and nothing about the condition of the baggie or pills, the acts of Appellant constituted concealment rather than destruction. Id. Based on this determination, the court of appeals reversed the trial court, holding that no rational trier of fact could have found that Appellant destroyed the baggie within the meaning of the law. (1) Id. at 73.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

In evaluating the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty of all of the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 61 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979); Swearingen v. State, 101 S.W.3d 89, 95 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003). When the State pleads a specific element of a penal offense that has statutory alternatives for that element, the sufficiency of the evidence will be measured by the element that was actually pleaded, and not any alternative statutory elements. Cada v. State, 334 S.W.3d 766, 774 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (citing Plantar v. State, 9 S.W.3d 156, 159 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999); Fuller v. State, 73 S.W.3d 250, 255-56 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002) (Keller, P.J., concurring);Macias v. State, 136 S.W.3d 702, 705-06 (Tex. App. - Texarkana 2004, no pet.)). The due-process guarantee requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt to support every element of the offense alleged and demands that we reverse and order a judgment of acquittal if a rational trier of fact would entertain a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt. Swearingen, 101 S.W.3d at 95.

DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE

Section 37.09(a)(1) of the Texas Penal Code defines the offense of tampering with physical evidence with three elements: (1) Knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress; (2) a person alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing; (3) with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding. Williams v. State, 270 S.W.3d 140, 142 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). As noted, Appellant's indictment alleged only that he destroyed the evidence and did not allege either of the statutory alternatives.

In the present case, the court of appeals looked to our opinion in Williams for the definition of "destroy" and for guidance in analyzing Appellant's actions. In Williams, we held that a glass crack pipe that had been broken into pieces when stepped on was destroyed for the purposes of this statute. Id. at 146. We asserted that, because the Legislature chose to use the three different words in the statute, "'destroys' must have an effect distinct from 'alters' and 'conceals.'" Id. We then determined that evidence is "destroyed" when "ruined or rendered useless," rather than when its evidentiary value is lost or diminished. Id. at 145-46.
The court of appeals used this discussion from Williams in deciding that "destroy" and "conceal" should not so closely overlap as to be interchangeable in this case. The State, however, mischaracterizes the opinion as disallowing any overlap in the definitions of "destroy" and "conceal." In reality, the court of appeals explicitly acknowledged that "there is the possibility of overlap in the application of the three means of tampering." Rabb, 387 S.W.3d at 72. The court of appeals simply declined to extend the definition of "destroy" that we put forth in Williams to the situation in this case in which Appellant's "action so clearly constitut[ed] a concealment." Id.

While the words chosen by the Legislature in defining this offense each have a distinct purpose, this does not preclude overlap among those meanings. See, e.g., Clinton v. State, 354 S.W.3d 795, 801 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (concluding that "uses" and "presents" have some overlap in the debit-card-abuse statute); Taylor v. State, 117 S.W.3d 848, 851 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003) (stating there is nothing "unusual" in overlap between the terms "manager" and "employee"); Patterson v. State, 769 S.W.2d 938, 941 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989) (holding that there is overlap in the terms "use" and "exhibit" in the deadly-weapon statute). Therefore, while "conceal," "destroy," and "alter" each have their own meaning, they are not mutually exclusive, and we do not find the court of appeals' decision in conflict with this conclusion.
The State also argues that the court of appeals erred in deciding that no reasonable trier of fact could have found that Appellant's actions constituted destruction of the baggie. The State points out that fact finders are permitted to draw reasonable inferences if supported by the evidence. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319; Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9, 15 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). It asserts that concluding that the baggie was destroyed in Appellant's digestive tract was a reasonable inference for the trial court to make.
The State's statement of the law is correct. This means that if a fact finder could reasonably infer from the evidence that the baggie and pills were destroyed by their passage into Appellant's body, then the evidence would be sufficient to uphold Appellant's conviction. Id. The fact finder is, however, prohibited from drawing conclusions based on speculation or mere theorizing about the possible meaning of the facts. Hooper, 214 S.W.3d at 16.

In this case, the State did not present any evidence on the condition of the baggie or its contents after Appellant swallowed them, nor any evidence that demonstrated that the items had been ruined or rendered useless. In fact, there was not even an attempt made by officers or doctors to retrieve the baggie or to determine if its recovery was possible. There was, therefore, no evidence at the trial from which a fact finder could reasonably infer that the evidence had been destroyed.

The State also asserts that triers of fact are free to use their common sense, common knowledge, observation, and experience to make inferences reasonably drawn from the evidence. It argues that people's life experiences would allow an inference that the baggie was destroyed in Appellant's stomach. However, while it is possible that the baggie was destroyed, it is just as possible that it was not. Swallowing items filled with drugs is a common technique used by smugglers to conceal and transport those drugs. This act clearly does not cause the destruction of the drugs, or it would be useless to the transporters. Therefore, without any evidence on the status of the baggie, a determination on whether it was intact or destroyed after passing through Appellant's stomach would be based purely on speculation.

In order to prevail in any prosecution, "the State must prove the statutory elements that it [chose] to allege, not some other alternative statutory element that it did not allege." Cada, 334 S.W.3d at 776 (discussing the requirements of due process and Jackson v. Virginia). In this case, the State chose to allege only that Appellant destroyed the evidence and chose not to include either of the statutory alternatives. The State then presented no evidence that the baggie and its contents were destroyed and no evidence on which a fact finder could base a reasonable inference that they had been destroyed. Consequently, we hold that the court of appeals was correct in determining that no rational trier of fact could have found that Appellant destroyed the evidence.
LESSER-INCLUDED OFFENSE

The State's final argument is that, upon finding the evidence insufficient to show Appellant "destroyed" the evidence, the court of appeals should have reformed his conviction to attempted tampering with evidence rather than entering a judgment of acquittal.

The State bases this argument on our decision in Bowen v. State, 374 S.W.3d 427 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012), in which we overruled Collier v. State, 999 S.W.2d 779 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999) and ordered the reformation of an acquittal judgment to reflect a conviction on a lesser-included offense.
Neither the State nor the court of appeals had the benefit of our decision in Thornton v. State, which was rendered on April 2, 2014. In Thornton we held that:
[A]fter a court of appeals has found the evidence insufficient to support an appellant's conviction for a greater-inclusive offense, in deciding whether to reform the judgment to reflect a conviction for a lesser-included offense, that court must answer two questions: 1) in the course of convicting the appellant of the greater offense, must the jury have necessarily found every element necessary to convict the appellant for the lesser-included offense; and 2) conducting an evidentiary sufficiency analysis as though the appellant had been convicted of the lesser-included offense at trial, is there sufficient evidence to support a conviction for that offense? If the answer to either of these questions is no, the court of appeals is not authorized to reform the judgment. But if the answers to both are yes, the court is authorized-indeed required-to avoid the "unjust" result of an outright acquittal by reforming the judgment to reflect a conviction for the lesser-included offense.
425 S.W.3d at 299-300.
Therefore, the proper disposition here is to remand the case to the court of appeals for its consideration of those questions.
CONCLUSION

Considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the court's verdict, a rational trier of fact could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant destroyed the baggie and its contents. However, the court of appeals must analyze whether our recent decision in Thornton mandates reformation of the conviction rather than acquittal. Therefore, the case is remanded to the court of appeals for consideration of this issue.



Delivered: June 25, 2014
Publish

1. Because it reversed on this issue, the court found it unnecessary to consider whether there was sufficient evidence of Appellant's knowledge that an investigation was in progress. Rabb, 387 S.W.3d at 73.

CONCURRING OPINION

Cochran, J., filed a concurring opinion. 

I join the majority opinion. I write separately simply to point out that the State lost this conviction because it did not pay sufficient attention to its pleading. It may seem trivial, but there is, in cases such as this one, a difference between "concealing," "altering," and "destroying" evidence. That is why the legislature included all three criminal acts that constitute "tampering" with evidence in the statute. (1) And that is why a prosecutor might allege all three criminal acts in its indictment or information. I would agree that appellant concealed the baggie when he swallowed it, but there is no evidence to support a finding that the baggie was "destroyed" when swallowed.

Furthermore, although the parties have not raised the issue in this Court, I wonder how the baggie is "evidence" in an investigation? I can certainly understand how the pills contained within the baggie might be evidence if they are contraband, but surely possession of the baggie is neither a crime itself nor any evidence of a crime. Appellant may have swallowed the baggie, but it is the pills that matter.
Before filing a pleading, the cautious prosecutor might list out each element of the offense and each descriptive phrase and ask whether he can prove each element and allegation and whether the list adds up to a criminal offense.

DISSENTING OPINION

Alcala, J., filed a dissenting opinion in which Keller, P.J., joined.

Eating, swallowing, digesting, and eliminating: These are things every human being intimately understands based on common sense and a lifetime of daily personal experiences. In deference to the fact-finder's common sense, I would hold that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the conviction of Richard Lee Rabb, appellant, for tampering with physical evidence. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 2789 (1979) (evidence is sufficient when, viewing the evidence and all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the verdict, a rational fact-finder could have found each element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt). I conclude that a rational fact-finder could have determined that appellant ruined or rendered useless the pills and baggie by swallowing them, and, therefore, that he tampered with physical evidence by destroying it. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 37.09(a)(1) (West 2011). In contrast, the majority opinion circumvents the fact-finder's decision, calling it irrational, and, in the process, resurrects the long-dead reasonable-alternative-hypothesis analysis, which permits an appellate court to find the evidence insufficient based on the existence of scenarios in which the fact-finder's verdict could theoretically be wrong. See Geesa v. State, 820 S.W.2d 154, 156, 159 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991) (rejecting reasonable hypothesis analytical construct for evaluating sufficiency of evidence). I would keep the nail in the coffin of the reasonable-alternative-hypothesis analytical construct, hold that the evidence is legally sufficient, sustain the State's first and second grounds in its petition for discretionary review, and reverse the judgment of the court of appeals. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.

I. Evidence is Sufficient to Establish Tampering with Physical Evidence

By relying on common sense and life experiences, the fact-finder was rational in determining that the pills and baggie were ruined or rendered useless by appellant's act of swallowing them. The fact-finder's determination was not irrational merely because of the existence of an alternative reasonable hypothesis that is inconsistent with appellant's guilt, and the State was not required to provide affirmative evidence to disprove that alternative hypothesis. Because the fact-finder was rational in finding that the evidence was destroyed based upon the drawing of reasonable inferences, I would hold that the evidence is sufficient to establish appellant's guilt.

A. The Baggie and Pills Were Rendered Useless for Their Intended Purpose

The record reflects that appellant was at a Walmart with his brother, James, when James was detained by Walmart security officers on suspicion of shoplifting. After police officers arrived, appellant was also detained and questioned about whether he had taken any store merchandise without paying for it. Appellant denied having stolen anything and consented to a search. During the police officer's subsequent search of appellant, a Walmart security officer alerted the officer that appellant was holding something in his hand. The police officer reached up and attempted to take the object, a plastic baggie, out of appellant's hand, but before he could reach it, appellant placed it into his mouth and refused to spit it out. A struggle ensued as the officer attempted to force appellant to spit out the baggie, and, at some point during the struggle, appellant swallowed the baggie. A second officer eventually tasered appellant in order to subdue him, and appellant was placed under arrest. An ambulance was called to the scene to check appellant's vital signs, at which point appellant told a paramedic that the baggie contained prescription pills that had not been prescribed to him. The baggie and pills were never recovered.

Based on a lifetime of personal experience with the digestive process that follows consumption of food and pills, a rational trier of fact could have found that the pills and baggie were destroyed by appellant's act of swallowing them, either because (1) they were digested in that process, or (2) they were expelled in an unsanitary condition in appellant's excrement after passing through his intestinal tract. Under either possible scenario, a rational fact-finder could have found, based on the drawing of reasonable inferences, that the pills were destroyed.

A person commits the offense of tampering with physical evidence if, "knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, he . . . alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding[.]" Tex. Penal Code § 37.09(a)(1). This Court has previously interpreted the meaning of the statutory term "destroys" in Williams v. State, in which it held that an item of evidence is destroyed when it is "ruined and rendered useless," or, stated differently, when it "has lost its identity and is no longer recognizable." 270 S.W.3d 140, 145-46 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). In Williams, the defendant was convicted of tampering with physical evidence after a crack pipe fell to the ground during a police officer's pat-down search of him and he stomped on the pipe, breaking it into pieces. Id. at 141. On appeal, Williams argued that the evidence was insufficient to show that the crack pipe was destroyed because the crack pipe's remains, glass shards and a copper mesh filter, were admitted into evidence at trial and, therefore, retained some evidentiary value. Id. at 145. This Court disagreed. It explained that the plain meaning of the word "destroys" does not require proof of a lack of physical existence or a loss of evidentiary value because "the remains of a destroyed object can still have evidentiary value." Id. at 146. Applying this interpretation in Williams, this Court explained that the crack pipe was destroyed within the meaning of the evidence-tampering statute because officers were "unable to retrieve every piece of the shattered crack pipe, and even if the recovered pieces could have been glued together in an attempt to reconstruct the evidence to its former physical state, it would be less than a complete crack pipe." Id. It went on to hold that the evidence was sufficient to show that the crack pipe was destroyed because the recovered pieces, glass shards and a copper mesh filter, "had lost their identity as a crack pipe and were not recognizable as a crack pipe." Id.

Williams decisively determined that, although the State must prove that a defendant acted with intent to impair the verity, legibility, or availability of evidence in an investigation, it need not prove that the altered, destroyed, or concealed item could not be used as evidence at a defendant's trial. See id.; Tex. Penal Code § 37.09(a)(1). Rather, under Williams, the relevant question is whether the evidence has been "ruined" or "rendered useless" for its intended purpose, or alternatively, whether it has "lost its identity" and is "no longer recognizable" as a result of the defendant's actions. See Williams, 270 S.W.3d at 146. Applying the reasoning of Williams to the facts of this case, I would hold that a rational fact-finder could have concluded that the pills and baggie were ruined or rendered useless, and thus destroyed, by appellant's act of swallowing them. See id. at 145-46; see also Tex. Penal Code § 37.09(a)(1). It is irrelevant whether the pills and baggie could possibly have retained some evidentiary value if they had passed intact through appellant's intestinal tract and been recovered. Regardless of whether the pills and baggie were entirely or partially digested by appellant or were expelled by appellant with his excrement, the fact-finder was not irrational in determining that their condition after passing through his intestinal tract "would be less than" their "former physical state," and, therefore, ruined. See Williams, 270 S.W.3d at 146. I would hold that the fact-finder was rational in determining that the pills and baggie, whether digested or expelled, were rendered ruined or useless as to their intended purpose, and, therefore, were destroyed. See id.; Tex. Penal Code § 37.09(a)(1). (1)

B. Existence of a Reasonable Alternative Does Not Make Evidence Insufficient

The absence of direct evidence about what actually happened to the baggie and pills does not mean that the fact-finder engaged in impermissible speculation, as suggested by the court of appeals, because under any possible scenario, the fact-finder could rationally infer from the circumstances that the items were destroyed. See Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9, 15 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007) (noting that, although fact-finder is not permitted to reach conclusions based on mere speculation, "direct evidence of the elements of the offense is not required"; fact-finder is "permitted to make reasonable inferences from the evidence presented at trial," and circumstantial evidence "is as probative as direct evidence" in establishing an actor's guilt).

In reaching its conclusion that the evidence is insufficient, the majority opinion reasons that, because some drug mules transport drugs in their intestines without those drugs being ruined, it was at least theoretically possible that the baggie and pills in this case were not ruined if they passed through appellant's intestinal tract and were expelled in his excrement. For two reasons, I disagree with this line of reasoning. First, the fact-finder could have rationally determined that appellant's consumption of the baggie and pills, under the circumstances, would lead to their destruction because appellant swallowed those objects suddenly and without having planned to do so. Although I acknowledge, as the majority opinion does, that some drug mules are able to transport balloons filled with heroin and cocaine inside their intestinal tracts without those drugs being destroyed, that particular method of transporting drugs requires preparation. Mules will generally transport heroin and cocaine by placing the drugs inside two or more condoms, with each condom layered inside the other, so that the outer condom exposed to excrement may be discarded while the inner condom containing the drugs remains sanitary. The properly packaged balloons can pass through the intestinal tract without the drugs being compromised because such items will not generally dissolve in intestinal fluids. The drugs contained within the inner condom remain useable and in a sanitary condition because only the outer condom is exposed to intestinal fluids and excrement. Even in those situations, which involve careful planning and design, it is common knowledge that things can sometimes go wrong--for example, the balloons might rupture or become lodged in the intestinal tract.

In contrast, here, the fact-finder could have rationally inferred from the circumstances that appellant was not planning on swallowing the baggie and pills that day and that his impulsive act of swallowing those objects would cause them, unlike drugs packaged in multiply-layered condoms, to succumb to the corrosive effects of his intestinal fluids. And, even if the baggie and pills survived the intestinal tract, they would have passed in appellant's excrement, causing them to be ruined because they were unsanitary and unusable. Although the fact-finder could have reached a different conclusion had it weighed the facts differently, this Court must defer to the fact-finder's common sense with respect to the uselessness of pills that have passed through a person's intestinal tract. See Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S. Ct. at 2789 (describing sufficiency-review standard as giving "full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact to fairly resolve conflicts in testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts"); Temple v. State, 390 S.W.3d 341, 360 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (when record supports conflicting inferences, "we presume that the jury resolved the conflicts in favor of the verdict and therefore defer to that determination") (quoting Jackson, 443 U.S. at 326, 99 S. Ct. at 2792); Hooper, 214 S.W.3d at 15 (fact-finder should be permitted "to draw multiple reasonable inferences as long as each inference is supported by the evidence presented at trial").

Second, I disagree with the majority opinion's focus on circumstances that might be consistent with appellant's innocence, when it should instead focus on whether the fact-finder could rationally have found appellant guilty. The majority opinion reasons that, because some people can swallow items without those items being destroyed, such an outcome was at least theoretically possible in this case and, therefore, the existence of a circumstance that would be inconsistent with appellant's guilt renders the evidence insufficient. This type of reasoning marks the revival of the alternative-reasonable-hypothesis analytical construct, which required a reviewing court to find that every other reasonable hypothesis raised by the evidence was negated, save and except for that establishing the defendant's guilt, if a conviction was to be affirmed in a circumstantial-evidence case. Reyes v. State, 938 S.W.2d 718, 719 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996) (stating that prior to Geesa v. State, this Court "employed the 'reasonable-hypothesis-of-innocence' analytical construct to review the sufficiency of the evidence in circumstantial evidence cases") (citing Geesa, 820 S.W.2d at 158). But this Court long ago "abolished the reasonable-hypothesis construct for measuring the sufficiency of the evidence in a circumstantial evidence case[.]" Taylor v. State, 10 S.W.3d 673, 680 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000). "Courts and juries no longer face the difficult task of excluding every reasonable hypothesis other than the defendant's guilt." Laster v. State, 275 S.W.3d 512, 521 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009). And the State need not present evidence that conclusively excludes every conceivable alternative to a defendant's guilt. See Wright v. West, 505 U.S. 277, 296, 112 S. Ct. 2482, 2493 (1992) (prosecution has no affirmative duty to "rule out every hypothesis except that of guilt") (quoting Jackson, 443 U.S. at 326); Merritt v. State, 368 S.W.3d 516, 525 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012) ("It is the State's burden to prove each element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt, not to exclude every conceivable alternative to a defendant's guilt."). Even if it is true that some drug mules are able to transport drugs in their intestines in multiply-layered condoms without the drugs being destroyed, the existence of an alternative reasonable hypothesis does not mean that a fact-finder here would be irrational in determining that, where the pills were contained in a single plastic baggie and hurriedly swallowed by appellant in order to evade police detection, appellant's consumption of the baggie and pills destroyed the items, either through digestion or contact with excrement. I conclude that the fact-finder could have rationally determined, based on personal experience, that the baggie and pills either (1) succumbed to gastrointestinal fluids that dissolved and converted the contents into something else, or (2) passed through the intestinal tract and were expelled from the body through excrement, thereby ruining them and rendering them useless for their intended purpose.

II. Conclusion

The majority opinion takes the unusually odd position of calling the fact-finder irrational for deciding that a baggie and pills that were either digested or exposed to excrement were "destroyed" within the meaning of the evidence-tampering statute. It is often said that this Court, in reviewing for sufficiency of the evidence, should not act as a thirteenth juror and should instead limit itself to guarding against the rare occurrence when a fact-finder does not act rationally. See Isassi v. State, 330 S.W.3d 633, 638 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010); see also United States v. Vargas-Ocampo, 711 F.3d 508, 512 (5th Cir. 2013) (original op.) (stating that fact-finder's role is to perform "weighing of inferences"; appellate court reviewing for sufficiency must defer to fact-finder's reasonable rejection of "benign explanation" for incriminating inferences). Because I conclude that a rational fact-finder could have determined that the baggie and pills were rendered useless or ruined by appellant's act of swallowing them, I would hold that the evidence is legally sufficient to sustain appellant's conviction for tampering with physical evidence. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.

Filed: June 25, 2014

Publish

1. I agree with appellant that the evidence in this case also establishes that he concealed and altered the pills and baggie, but I disagree that this necessarily means that they were not also destroyed. The same fact pattern can establish alteration, destruction and concealment of evidence. See Tex. Penal Code § 37.09(a)(1). As Judge Womack pointed out in his concurring opinion in Williams, when "something is destroyed, it may also be said to have been altered" because these terms "may not be mutually exclusive." See Williams v. State, 270 S.W.3d 140, 147 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) (Womack, J., concurring).

The text of this decision is from the appellate court's website, copied on the date of posting. I do not warrant the accuracy of the text, as it may have been amended since this posting, or an error may have occurred in formatting.

Price v. State, PD-1460-13

Double Jeopardy:  A conviction for continuous sexual abuse of a child and attempted aggravated assault of a child, where the victim named in the indictment is the same person, violates double jeopardy.  Attempted aggravated assault is a lesser included of a predicate offense of continuous sexual abuse.
________________________________________________________________________________
IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS

NO. PD-1460-13

JIMMY DON PRICE, Appellant

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

ON STATE'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
FROM THE NINTH COURT OF APPEALS

POLK COUNTY

Alcala, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which Keller, P.J., Meyers, Price, Johnson, Keasler, Hervey, and Cochran, JJ., joined. Price, J., filed a concurring opinion in which Cochran, J., joined. Womack, J., concurred in the judgment for the reasons stated in the opinion of Price, J.

O P I N I O N

In this case, we address whether the statute defining the offense of continuous sexual abuse of a young child permits a defendant to be convicted both of that offense and of a criminal attempt to commit a predicate offense under that statute. See Tex. Penal Code §§ 15.01(a); 21.02(b), (c), (e). (1) The court of appeals answered that question in the negative by examining the statute's language and determining that the Legislature could not have intended to permit both convictions because that outcome would violate a defendant's constitutional rights against double jeopardy. See Price v. State, 413 S.W.3d 158, 163-64 (Tex. App.--Beaumont 2013). Accordingly, the court of appeals vacated the conviction for attempted aggravated sexual assault against Jimmy Don Price, appellant. See id. We agree with the court of appeals's judgment vacating appellant's conviction for criminal attempt and with its ultimate assessment that permitting both convictions would violate his constitutional rights against double jeopardy. See id. We reach that conclusion, however, by first deciding that the statute's text is ambiguous with respect to whether both convictions should be permitted, and we then consider the pertinent extra-textual factors. See Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(c); Tex. Gov't Code § 311.023. We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. Background

The complainant is appellant's ten-year-old stepdaughter. She testified at appellant's trial that from approximately March 2009 to January 2010, he committed multiple, repeated sexual acts against her, including genital penetration of her anus and mouth, digital and oral penetration of her genitals, and touching of her breasts. She also testified that during the same time period, appellant tried to penetrate her genitals with a vibrator and with his genitals. These facts resulted in a jury convicting appellant of four offenses, only two of which are pertinent to this appeal: the conviction for continuous sexual abuse that was alleged to have occurred on or about June 1, 2009, through January 29, 2010, and the conviction for attempted aggravated sexual assault of a child that was alleged to have occurred on or about January 29, 2010. See Tex. Penal Code §§ 21.02(b); 22.021(a)(1)(B), (a)(2)(B).

On appeal, the parties disputed whether the statutory language would permit dual convictions for the offenses of continuous sexual abuse and attempted aggravated sexual assault. Appellant asserted that attempted aggravated sexual assault is a lesser-included offense of aggravated sexual assault, which is specifically enumerated as one of the predicate offenses that may be used to establish the offense of continuous sexual abuse. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 37.09(4); Tex. Penal Code §§ 15.01(a); 21.02(b), (c)(4). Because the attempt offense is a lesser-included offense of the predicate aggravated-sexual-assault offense, appellant argued that upholding his convictions for both offenses would violate his rights against double jeopardy. The State responded that the plain language of the continuous-sexual-abuse statute references only aggravated sexual assault, not attempted aggravated sexual assault, and therefore, a defendant may be convicted for both continuous sexual abuse and the lesser attempted offense. See Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(c).

The court of appeals agreed with appellant. Price, 413 S.W.3d at 163. It held that the statute's language expressed the Legislature's intent to disallow convictions for both continuous sexual abuse and a predicate offense that could be used to establish that offense. Id. at 162-63. The court acknowledged the State's claim that appellant was charged with attempting to commit, rather than with the commission of, a predicate offense and that the statute does not specifically mention criminal attempt. Id. at 162. Despite the absence of any mention of criminal attempt in the statute, the court determined that the Legislature would not have intended to permit dual convictions that would violate a defendant's rights against double jeopardy. Id. at 163-64.

Challenging the court of appeals's purported failure to apply the plain language of the statute, the State's petition for discretionary review argues that because an attempt to commit a predicate offense is not included in the acts of sexual abuse enumerated in the statute, the Legislature intended to permit dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and for an attempt to commit a predicate offense under the statute. (2) The State further suggests that, even if the attempted offense occurred during the same period of time as the conduct giving rise to the conviction for continuous sexual abuse, both of appellant's convictions should be upheld because the facts show that he committed both completed acts of abuse against the complainant as well as a failed attempt to penetrate her with a vibrator. Appellant responds that, by including in the statutory language a provision that expressly disallows convictions for predicate offenses when a defendant is convicted under the continuous-sexual-abuse statute, the Legislature signaled its desire to protect against double-jeopardy violations and, therefore, it would be absurd to read the statute as permitting both convictions, which would result in a double-jeopardy violation.

II. The Legislature Did Not Intend to Permit Dual Convictions for Continuous Sexual Abuse and a Lesser-Included Offense



After reviewing the statutory language, we decide that it is ambiguous as to whether it permits dual convictions for the offenses of continuous sexual abuse and attempted aggravated sexual assault. We then consider the extra-textual factors before ultimately deciding that permitting dual convictions under these circumstances would violate the statutory scheme set forth by the Legislature. A. The Statute is Ambiguous


1. Applicable Law for Determining Whether Language is Ambiguous



In construing a statute, this Court must seek to effectuate the "collective" intent or purpose of the legislators who enacted the legislation. Reynolds v. State, 423 S.W.3d 377, 382 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014); Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782, 785 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991). In interpreting statutes, we presume that the Legislature intended for the entire statutory scheme to be effective. Mahaffey v. State, 364 S.W.3d 908, 913 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012). When statutory language is clear and unambiguous, we give effect to its plain meaning unless to do so would lead to absurd consequences that the Legislature could not have possibly intended. Ex parte Valdez, 401 S.W.3d 651, 655 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013); Boykin, 818 S.W.2d at 785. A statute is ambiguous when the statutory language may be understood by reasonably well-informed persons in two or more different senses; conversely, a statute is unambiguous when it permits only one reasonable understanding. See Bryant v. State, 391 S.W.3d 86, 92 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012).

2. Statute Clearly Disallows Dual Convictions for Continuous Sexual Abuse and Enumerated Acts



The statutory language reflects that the Legislature intended to permit one conviction for continuous sexual abuse based on the repeated acts of sexual abuse that occur over an extended period of time against a single complainant, even if the jury lacks unanimity as to each of the particular sexual acts or their time of occurrence, so long as the jury members agree that at least two acts occurred during a period that is thirty or more days in duration. Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(b), (d), (f). The "acts of sexual abuse" are specifically enumerated and are lesser-included offenses of the offense of continuous sexual abuse. Id. § 21.02(c); Soliz v. State, 353 S.W.3d 850, 854 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (holding that "a[] [predicate] offense listed under Subsection (c) will always" be a lesser offense of continuous sexual abuse because the latter "is, by its very definition, the commission under certain circumstances of two or more of the offenses listed in Subsection (c)") (internal quotations omitted).

The statutory language further reflects that the Legislature clearly intended to disallow dual convictions for the offense of continuous sexual abuse and for offenses enumerated as "acts of sexual abuse" when based on conduct against the same child during the same period of time. See Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(e). A defendant charged with continuous sexual abuse who is tried in the same criminal action for an enumerated offense based on conduct committed against the same victim may not be convicted for both offenses unless the latter offense occurred outside the period of time in which the continuous-sexual-abuse offense was committed. Id. Excepting the situation where different periods of time are at issue, a fact finder could find a defendant guilty either of continuous sexual abuse, or, alternatively, an enumerated act or acts of sexual abuse or a lesser offense or offenses of the enumerated act or acts. See id. We conclude that the statutory language is plain in providing that, when the acts alleged were committed against a single child, the Legislature did not intend to permit dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and for an enumerated act of sexual abuse unless the latter occurred during a different period of time.

3. The Statute is Ambiguous as to the Legislature's Intent in Omitting Language on Criminal Attempts



In its brief on discretionary review, the State focuses on the fact that the "acts of sexual abuse" specifically enumerated in the statute do not mention criminal attempts to commit those acts. Id. § 21.02(c). Relying on the absence of that language, the State argues that the Legislature must have intended to permit dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and for an attempt to commit an enumerated act of sexual abuse. As support, it relies on Parfait v. State, in which this Court interpreted Texas Penal Code Section 3.03, which governs sentencing for multiple offenses arising out of the same criminal episode, to determine whether a sentence for a criminal attempt to commit a sex offense could be stacked with sentences for completed sex offenses, despite the fact that attempt was not specifically enumerated as a stackable offense under the statute. 120 S.W.3d 348, 349-50 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003) (citing Tex. Penal Code § 3.03(b)(2)(A)). This Court held that a defendant's sentence for an attempted offense did not qualify as a stackable offense. Id. at 350-51. The Court explained that the Legislature could reasonably have distinguished between, on one hand, mandatory concurrent sentencing for sex-offense convictions including attempts, and on the other hand, discretionary cumulation for convictions involving only completed offenses. Id. at 351. Unlike the statutory provisions at issue in Parfait that did not indicate a clear legislative intent to permit stacking, here the statutory language is plain regarding the Legislature's intent to disallow dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and for an enumerated offense committed against a single child during the same period of time. See Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(e). Parfait, therefore, provides little guidance for resolving this appeal.

A reasonably well-informed person examining the language of the continuous-sexual-abuse statute could determine that its silence with respect to whether a person may be simultaneously convicted of that offense and of a criminal attempt to commit a predicate offense suggests that the Legislature intended to permit those dual convictions. Alternatively, another reasonably well-informed person examining the entire statutory scheme could determine that, because the statute expressly prohibits dual convictions for both continuous sexual abuse and its enumerated acts, the Legislature must have also intended to disallow dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and a criminal attempt to commit an enumerated act, even though the statute does not expressly say so. In light of the existence of these two reasonable interpretations of the statute, and because the statutory text itself does not speak to this issue, we determine that the statute is ambiguous in this respect, and we must resort to an analysis of extra-textual factors.B. Extra-Textual Analysis Indicates Legislative Intent to Disallow Dual Convictions



We may consider de novo several extra-textual factors to discern the Legislature's intent. Druery v. State, 412 S.W.3d 523, 533 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). We begin by addressing the object sought to be attained by the statute, the circumstances under which the statute was enacted, and the statute's legislative history, all of which lead us to the conclusion that the Legislature intended to prohibit dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and a lesser-included offense of criminal attempt to commit an enumerated offense. See id. at 533-34; Valdez, 401 S.W.3d at 655 (citing Tex. Gov't Code § 311.023). Afterwards, we address the consequences of the State's proposed construction and conclude that permitting more than one conviction under the circumstances of this case would violate appellant's rights against double jeopardy. Druery, 412 S.W.3d at 533-34; Valdez, 401 S.W.3d at 655; see also Littrell v. State, 271 S.W.3d 273, 276 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). Based on an analysis of the pertinent extra-textual factors, we ultimately determine that the Legislature did not intend to permit dual convictions for both continuous sexual abuse and for criminal attempt to commit a predicate offense.

(1) The Object Sought to Be Attained, the Circumstances Under Which the Statute Was Enacted, and the Legislative History



The statute's circumstances of enactment and legislative history show that the Legislature intended the statute to "adapt [the Penal Code] to the common factual scenario of an ongoing crime involving an abusive sexual relationship of a child[.]" Dixon v. State, 201 S.W.3d 731, 737 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (Cochran, J., concurring). Prior to the statute's enactment, Judge Cochran in Dixon described the common occurrence in child sex cases, as follows:

[A] young child is repeatedly molested by an authority figure--usually a step-parent, grandparent, uncle or caregiver; there is (or is not) medical evidence of sexual contact; and the child is too young to be able to differentiate one instance of sexual exposure, contact, or penetration from another or have an understanding of arithmetic sufficient to accurately indicate the number of offenses. As in this case, "he did it 100 times." The real gravamen of this criminal behavior is the existence of a sexually abusive relationship with a young child . . . marked by continuous and numerous acts of sexual abuse of the same or different varieties.



Id. at 736-37. She noted that despite such facts, "current Texas law does not easily accommodate the prosecution of generic, undifferentiated, ongoing acts of sexual abuse of young children." Id. at 737. As a result, she predicted that a "train wreck" would likely result from "what appears to be a futile attempt" to accommodate both a defendant's "rights to a specific verdict for one specific criminal act" and the fact that "the criminal conduct at issue is not really one specific act at one specific moment." Id. She proposed that the Legislature consider "enacting a new penal statute that focuses upon a continuing course of conduct crime--a sexually abusive relationship that is marked by a pattern or course of conduct of various sexual acts." Id.

Lawmakers responded to her call for legislation. In hearings about the legislation, Senator Florence Shapiro, the authoring sponsor of Senate Bill 78, which introduced the statute's framework, stated, "This new offense that we're creating in this bill will allow for the prosecution of a repetitive course of conduct over an extended period of time. It does not have to specify the specific date of the event, nor the specific event." See Hearing on Tex. S.B. 78 Before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, 80th Leg., R.S. (Mar. 20, 2007, at 39:08-40:14), available at http://www.senate.state.tx.us/avarchive/?yr=2007&mo=03). Although Senator Shapiro did not specifically address whether dual convictions for continuous sexual abuse and a criminal attempt to commit a lesser-included offense would be permitted, she did discuss the concept that a jury that was unconvinced about the continuous-sexual-abuse offense could alternatively convict a defendant for a lesser-included offense. She stated,



[The statute] specifies that if the actor is found guilty of a lesser offense, a lesser sexual offense within continuous sexual assault, that they may be prosecuted for that offense in the same criminal action. There will not have to be a retrial as long as it's within the confines of the continuous sexual assault[.]


Id. (Mar. 20, 2007, at 41:10-42:02); see House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, Bill Analysis, Tex. C.S.H.B. 436, at 1, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007).

Judge Cochran's descriptions of the problem sought to be addressed by the statute, the ongoing sexually abusive relationship, and Senator Shapiro's similar reference to a repetitive course of conduct over an extended period of time each suggest that the objective of the statute was to hold a defendant criminally liable through a single conviction for all of the sexual acts transpiring between him and the victim during a designated period of time. Furthermore, Senator Shapiro's discussion of lesser-included offenses suggests that the Legislature intended to permit a fact finder to convict a defendant for a lesser-included offense, which would include the attempt to commit a predicate offense, but only as an alternative to conviction for continuous sexual assault.

We also observe that this Court's earlier analysis of this statutory scheme in Soliz v. State is instructive with respect to whether the Legislature intended to permit any other conviction in addition to a conviction for continuous sexual abuse. See 353 S.W.3d at 853-54. The issue in Soliz was whether the statutory language as to lesser-included offenses meant that it was the jury that decided whether an offense constituted a lesser offense, or whether that issue was rather a matter of law to be determined by the trial court. Id. (discussing Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(e), which states that a defendant "may not be convicted" in same criminal action of enumerated offense unless that offense is, among other things, "considered by the trier of fact to be a lesser included offense of the offenses alleged under Subsection (b)"). In resolving that issue, this Court noted that the statute's "avowed purpose" was the "establish[ment of] a crime that focuses on the pattern of abuse over a period of time." Id. at 853 (citations and quotations omitted). Because the statute's focus was on a pattern of abuse, we explained that the statutory language prohibited the State from "carv[ing] individual offenses out of that pattern and thus reintroduc[ing] the problems the statute was designed to address." Id. Our comments in Soliz about the carving out of predicate offenses applies equally to the carving out of lesser-included offenses. See id.

Examination of the object sought to be attained by the statute, the circumstances under which it was enacted, and its legislative history reveals that the Legislature intended to permit one conviction for continuous sexual abuse for conduct committed against a single complainant during a specified time period. The statute facilitated this legislative intent by allowing the jury to more broadly consider multiple acts of abuse over an extended period of time and by disallowing other convictions for predicate acts of sexual abuse that would be considered lesser-included offenses of continuous sexual abuse. See Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(b)-(e). A criminal attempt to commit a predicate offense is a lesser-included offense of that predicate offense and is subsumed within that completed offense upon commission. See id. § 15.01(a), (c). Consequently, we conclude that it would defeat the legislative purpose underlying the statute if a fact finder were permitted to convict a defendant both of continuous sexual abuse and a criminal attempt to commit a predicate offense.

(2) The Consequences of a Particular Construction

a. Double Jeopardy

The Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy protects "against multiple punishments for the same offense." Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 688, 100 S. Ct. 1432, 1436 (1980) (quoting North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S. Ct. 2072, 2076 (1969)); see U.S. Const. amends V, XIV. In pertinent part, a multiple-punishments claim can arise when a person is punished for: (1) the same primary offense twice, "once for the basic conduct, and a second time for that same conduct plus more," or (2) the same criminal act twice under two distinct statutes "when the legislature intended the conduct to be punished only once[.]" Langs v. State, 183 S.W.3d 680, 685 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006).

The question of whether an individual may be punished for the same criminal act under two distinct statutes is a matter of legislative intent. Littrell, 271 S.W.3d at 276. To determine whether the Legislature would have intended a particular course of conduct to be subject to multiple punishments under two separate statutory provisions, we look first to the statutory language. The "starting point" for such an analysis is the Blockburger test, used to determine whether each of the offenses requires proof of an element that the other does not. Id. (citing Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S. Ct. 180 (1932)). If two separately defined offenses have the "same elements" under Blockburger, then a judicial presumption arises that the offenses are the same for purposes of double jeopardy, and, absent a clear sign of legislative intent to the contrary, an accused "may not be punished for both." See id. (explaining that, once judicial presumption of sameness arises for double-jeopardy purposes, the question then becomes "whether the Legislature has clearly expressed a contrary intention that the accused should in fact be punished for both the greater and the lesser-included offenses") (citations omitted). The Blockburger test is a rule of statutory construction and is not the exclusive test for determining if two offenses are the same, and it cannot be the basis for authorizing two punishments where the Legislature clearly intended only one. See Bigon v. State, 252 S.W.3d 360, 371 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008); Ervin v. State, 991 S.W.2d 804, 807 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999). The Legislature's intent can also be discerned by "a list of non-exclusive factors designed to help courts in the absence of clear guidance," including the offenses' allowable unit of prosecution. Garfias v. State, 424 S.W.3d 54, 59-60 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014). Here, the court of appeals's determination that the State's construction would constitute multiple punishments for the "same" offense relied, in part, on its observation that criminal attempts share the same allowable unit of prosecution as their corresponding completed offenses. Price, 413 S.W.3d at 162 (citing Ex parte Milner, 394 S.W.3d 502, 508-09 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013)).

Applying these principles to the present context, we conclude that our interpretation of the continuous-sexual-abuse statute conforms with law protecting a defendant's rights against double jeopardy. Because attempt is a lesser-included offense of the completed act of sexual abuse, and because a completed act of sexual abuse is a lesser-included offense of continuous sexual abuse, from this it follows that the attempt offense is also a lesser-included offense of continuous sexual abuse. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 37.09(4); Tex. Penal Code § 21.02(b), (c); Soliz, 353 S.W.3d at 854. We may, therefore, presume that the attempt and continuous-sexual-abuse offenses are the same for double-jeopardy purposes and that the Legislature did not intend to permit multiple punishments. See Littrell, 271 S.W.3d at 275-76 (observing that, in the multiple-punishments context, "two offenses may be the same if one offense stands in relation to the other as a lesser-included offense," and presumption arises that accused "may not be punished for both"). The judicial presumption that the Legislature did not intend to allow multiple punishments in this context is not overridden by a clearly expressed intention to the contrary. See id. at 276. We agree, therefore, with the court of appeals that it would violate a defendant's rights against double jeopardy to permit convictions for both continuous sexual abuse and an attempt to commit a predicate act with respect to conduct committed against the same complainant during the same period of time. Price, 413 S.W.3d at 163; see Soliz, 353 S.W.3d at 854.

b. Renaming of Offenses Would Defeat Legislative Intent

In light of the fact that a defendant may be convicted of an attempted offense even though he has actually completed it, the State's suggested reading of the statute would permit it to rename a completed predicate offense as an attempt to commit a predicate offense and obtain a conviction for the latter offense in conjunction with a conviction for continuous sexual abuse. See Tex. Penal Code § 15.01(c) (it is "no defense to prosecution for criminal attempt that the offense attempted was actually committed"). Because the facts establishing the commission of a predicate offense would also support a conviction for an attempt to commit that offense, the State's suggested reading would undermine the design of the statutory scheme to permit only one conviction for continuous sexual abuse for acts committed against a single child during a specified period of time. See id. § 21.02(e). This is a consequence of the State's proposed construction that could not possibly have been legislatively intended.

(3) Consideration of All Pertinent Extra-Textual Factors

Reviewing the relevant extra-textual factors de novo, we conclude that the Legislature intended to disallow dual convictions under the statute for continuous sexual abuse and for a lesser-included offense, including criminal attempt to commit a predicate offense. The object, legislative history, and circumstances of the statute's enactment all reflect a legislative intent to provide for a single punishment under the statute where the conduct at issue is against the same complainant within the same time frame. Additionally, this construction accords with double-jeopardy principles. By applying the pertinent extra-textual factors, we hold that the Legislature did not intend to permit dual convictions under these circumstances and that appellant's criminal-attempt conviction was, therefore, statutorily prohibited. III. Conclusion

Having held that the statute's language is ambiguous, and upon consideration of the pertinent extra-textual factors, we conclude that the statute's legislative intent was to permit one punishment where continuous sexual abuse is alleged against a single victim within a specified time frame. We also conclude that this intent extends to the statute's enumerated predicate offenses and to criminal attempts to commit those predicate offenses. We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

Delivered: June 25, 2014

Publish

1. The statute penalizing continuous sexual abuse of a young child, in relevant part, states:
(b) A person commits an offense if:
(1) during a period that is 30 or more days in duration, the person commits two or more acts of sexual abuse, regardless of whether the acts of sexual abuse are committed against one or more victims; and
(2) at the time of the commission of each of the acts of sexual abuse, the actor is 17 years of age or older and the victim is a child younger than 14 years of age.
(c) For purposes of this section, "act of sexual abuse" means any act that is a violation of one or more of the following penal laws:
(1) aggravated kidnapping under Section 20.04(a)(4), if the actor committed the offense with the intent to violate or abuse the victim sexually;
(2) indecency with a child under Section 21.11(a)(1), if the actor committed the offense in a manner other than by touching, including touching through clothing, the breast of a child;
(3) sexual assault under Section 22.011;
(4) aggravated sexual assault under Section 22.021;
(5) burglary under Section 30.02, if the offense is punishable under Subsection (d) of that section and the actor committed the offense with the intent to commit an offense listed in Subdivisions (1)-(4);
(6) sexual performance by a child under Section 43.25;
(7) trafficking of persons under Section 20A.02(a)(7) or (8); and
(8) compelling prostitution under Section 43.05(a)(2).
(d) If a jury is the trier of fact, members of the jury are not required to agree unanimously on which specific acts of sexual abuse were committed by the defendant or the exact date when those acts were committed. The jury must agree unanimously that the defendant, during a period that is 30 or more days in duration, committed two or more acts of sexual abuse.
(e) A defendant may not be convicted in the same criminal action of an offense listed under Subsection (c) the victim of which is the same victim as a victim of the offense alleged under Subsection (b) unless the offense listed in Subsection (c):
(1) is charged in the alternative;
(2) occurred outside the period in which the offense alleged under Subsection (b) was committed; or
(3) is considered by the trier of fact to be a lesser included offense of the offense alleged under Subsection (b).
(f) A defendant may not be charged with more than one count under Subsection (b) if all of the specific acts of sexual abuse that are alleged to have been committed are alleged to have been committed against a single victim. 
Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 21.02(b)-(f) (West 2013).

2. The State's ground for review asks,
In finding a jeopardy violation, did the court of appeals violate statutory construction canons by adding to the list of completed offenses that qualify as an "act of sexual abuse" for purposes of establishing the offense of continuous sexual abuse the attempt offenses of those completed offenses?

Price, J., filed a concurring opinion in which Cochran, J., joined. 


CONCURRING OPINION


Whether a defendant may be twice punished for two offenses stemming from a single prosecution, consistent with the Double Jeopardy Clause, is a question of legislative intent. (1) This requires us to engage in construction of the relevant statutes to determine what the statutory language reveals about the legislature's intent regarding the availability of multiple punishments. Typically, statutory language proves facially unrevealing with respect to this precise question, and we must resort to certain methods of statutory construction to divine the legislative intent. Principal among those methods--at least when dealing with the double-jeopardy implications of punishing a defendant twice in the same prosecution for two offenses that derive from separate sections of the Penal Code--is "[t]he traditional indicium of . . . legislative intent [which] is the so-called 'same elements' test ofBlockburger v. United States." (2) If two separately defined statutory offenses are the "same" under the Blockburger lesser-included-offense analysis, then "the judicial presumption is that they are the same for double-jeopardy purposes and that the accused may not be punished for both." (3) That presumption may be defeated, of course, by a clearly expressed intent to the contrary in the language of the relevant statute or statutes. (4)

The statute in question here, Section 21.02 of the Penal Code, (5) actually does make it clear that the Legislature did not intend that a defendant be convicted (and hence punished) both for this ongoing offense and also for any of the identified predicate offenses (against the same victim and during the same period of time as alleged for purposes of the continuous-sexual-abuse-of-a-child offense) that statutorily comprise an "act of sexual abuse." (6) Continuous sexual abuse of a child is to be regarded as the "same" offense, for double-jeopardy purposes, as any of the particular predicate offenses that comprise it. One of those predicate offenses is aggravated sexual assault under Section 22.021 of the Penal Code. (7) But did the Legislature also intend that any lesser-included offense of any of those predicate offenses (such as an attempted aggravated sexual assault) should be regarded as the "same" as the continuous-sexual-abuse-of-a-child offense for double-jeopardy purposes? Section 21.02 does not expressly speak to this question.
In the absence of any contrary expression of legislative intent in Section 21.02, our primary consideration is the Blockburger presumption. We know that the Legislature did not intend multiple punishments for both continuous sexual abuse of a child and any predicate offense, including aggravated sexual assault, subsumed therein. Attempted aggravated sexual assault is a lesser-included offense of aggravated sexual assault; they are the "same" offense for double-jeopardy purposes. (8) If the Legislature did not intend that an accused be punished for both continuous sexual abuse and for any of the named predicate offenses, then by extension (and entertaining the Blockburger presumption), we may safely assume that the Legislature did not intend that an accused be susceptible to punishment for both continuous sexual abuse of a child and also for any offense that is the same as (because a lesser-included offense of) any of the named predicate offenses. (9)
With these supplemental remarks, I join the Court's opinion.

FILED: June 25, 2014
PUBLISH

1. See, e.g.Littrell v. State, 271 S.W.3d 273, 276 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) ("Sameness in this context is a matter of legislative intent.").
2. Id. (citing Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299 (1932)).
3. Id.
4. Id.; Garza v. State, 213 S.W.3d 338, 351-52 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007).
5. Tex. Penal Code § 21.02.
6. Id. § (e).
7. Id § (c)(4) (listing Tex. Penal Code § 22.021).
8. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 37.09(4) ("An offense is a lesser included offense if . . . it consists of an attempt to commit the offense charged or an otherwise included offense."); Littrell, 271 S.W.3d at 277 n.18.
9. This is but an application of the transitive property: If a = b, and b = c, then a = c. If continuous sexual abuse of a child is the same offense as the predicate offense of aggravated sexual assault, and aggravated sexual assault is the same offense as its lesser-included offense of attempted aggravated sexual assault, then continuous sexual abuse of a child is the same offense as attempted aggravated sexual assault.

The text of this decision is from the appellate court's website, copied on the date of posting. I do not warrant the accuracy of the text, as it may have been amended since this posting, or an error may have occurred in formatting.

Kelly v. State, NO. PD-0702-13

Anders Briefs: This entire case is worth reading regarding appointed appellate counsel's duties and the court of appeals' duties towards an indigent appellant in a criminal case.  Notably, counsel's duty to his client does not cease upon filing a motion to withdraw and Anders brief, but only when the court of appeals grants the motion to withdraw.  In addition to "(1) notify his client of the motion to withdraw and the accompanying Anders brief, providing him a copy of each, (2) inform him of his right to file a pro se response and of his right to review the record preparatory to filing that response, and (3) inform him of his pro se right to seek discretionary review should the court of appeals declare his appeal frivolous," counsel must also (4) take concrete measures to initiate and facilitate the process of actuating his client's right to review the appellate record, if that is what his client wishes... at the same time that he files the motion to withdraw...also notify his client that, should he wish to exercise his right to review the appellate record in preparing to file a response to the Anders brief, he should immediately file a motion for pro se access to the appellate record with the applicable court of appeals." Additionally, the court of appeals should "ensure that, one way or another, this request is satisfied. Moreover, the appellate court may not rule on the motion to withdraw and the validity of the Anders brief until the appellant has been given access to, and an adequate opportunity to review, the appellate record."
________________________________________________________________________
IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS



NO. PD-0702-13


SYLVESTER KELLY, Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS



ON APPELLANT'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
FROM THE SIXTH COURT OF APPEALS
GREGG COUNTY


Price, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which Meyers, Womack, Johnson, Keasler, Hervey and Cochran, JJ., joined. Keller, P.J., filed a concurring opinion. Alcala, J., filed a concurring opinion. 


O P I N I O N

When appointed appellate counsel files a so-called Anders brief, (1) the indigent appellant has a right to review the appellate record and file a response in the court of appeals, pointing out to the appellate court any reason why he thinks there are non-frivolous issues to be raised on his behalf, notwithstanding his appointed counsel's evaluation of the record. In this petition for discretionary review, we address the question of who should bear the ultimate responsibility for assuring that the indigent appellant is allowed access to the appellate record in order to implement this right. We hold that appointed counsel has a duty, once he has filed a motion to withdraw from representation with accompanying Anders brief, to assist the appellant in filing a motion in the court of appeals for access to the appellate record if that is indeed what the appellant wants. Once such a motion is filed, the court of appeals has the ultimate responsibility to make sure that, one way or another (we shall not dictate how), the appellant is granted access to the appellate record so that he may file his response (if, after reviewing the record, he does decide to file one) before it rules on the adequacy of the Anders brief and appointed counsel's motion to withdraw.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL POSTURE

A jury convicted the appellant of aggravated robbery, and the trial court sentenced him to fifty years' incarceration. Because he was indigent, the trial court appointed a lawyer to represent him on appeal. The appellant's appointed counsel on appeal was unable to find any meritorious points of error to raise, however, and filed a motion to withdraw with an Anders brief. He wrote a letter to the appellant to inform him, inter alia, of his right to file a pro se response to the Anders brief. Trial counsel also specifically informed the appellant that he was entitled to review the appellate record in preparing that response, advising him to request the trial court to provide him with a copy of the trial record. (2) The appellant instead filed a pro se motion in the court of appeals requesting access to the appellate record. (3) When the appellant neither filed a response to the Anders brief nor sought an extension of time to do so, the Sixth Court of Appeals issued an unpublished memorandum opinion that determined the appeal to be "wholly frivolous." (4) It therefore granted appointed counsel's motion to withdraw from the appeal and affirmed the appellant's conviction, making no mention of any motion for access to the appellate record. (5) The appellant apparently filed a motion for rehearing in which he once again complained that he had been deprived of access to the appellate record in order to prepare a response; the court of appeals appears to have denied this motion. (6)
The appellant duly filed a petition for discretionary review in this Court, arguing that the court of appeals violated his rights to due process and due course of law by deeming his appeal to be frivolous without first granting him access to the appellate record so that he could prepare an adequate response to his appointed counsel's Anders brief. We granted the appellant's petition and ordered the trial court to appoint counsel for the appellant to brief the issue. In their respective briefs, both the State and the appellant have now agreed that the appellant should have been allowed access to the appellate record in order to prepare his response to appointed counsel's Anders brief. (7) In the absence of any governing rule in the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, however, or any case law providing a uniform procedure for ensuring that a pro se appellant who so desires may gain access to the appellate record under these circumstances, (8) the State could only suggest that "[t]his Court . . . assign someone the responsibility of arranging access." (9) Indeed, we ourselves have previously acknowledged "that there is a need for uniform procedures for those cases in which an Anders brief is filed, especially as the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure do not provide any explicit guidance." (10)

In order to educate ourselves about whatever procedures may presently be in place, we solicited information from the various courts of appeals with respect to how they currently go about ensuring that appellate records are made available to indigent pro se appellants who wish to review them in order to respond to Anders briefs. More specifically, we invited the clerks of the fourteen courts of appeals in Texas to file amicus briefs or letters "informing us of the current policies and procedures in their respective districts for ensuring that pro se appellants who so desire are granted access to the appellate record for purposes of responding to Anders briefs." (11)After considering the various responses of amici, we now endeavor to more specifically assign responsibility for giving the appellant access to the appellate record in a timely and efficient manner without unduly encroaching on the discretion of the courts of appeals to handle each case as the circumstances prescribe.

ANALYSIS

In response to our invitation to submit amicus briefs/letters, the Clerk of the Sixth Court of Appeals has indicated that "[o]ur procedures vary according to the situation." Upon receiving an Anders brief, the Sixth Court first makes sure that appellate counsel has informed the appellant of, inter alia, his right to review the appellate record. The more "helpful" appellate attorneys send a copy of the record to the appellant, we are told, but "[i]n the absence of such a proactive behavior, if the appellant contacts this Court requesting a record, we typically refer him or her alternatively to the defense attorney or the trial clerk." Thus, the Sixth Court has adopted a policy that appellate counsel "has the responsibility to procure a copy of the record for appellant to review in preparation of the pro se response to the Anders brief." (12) We cannot tell from the record before us in this case whether the Sixth Court, in keeping with this policy, referred the appellant to his appellate counsel or the trial clerk. We agree with the Sixth Court that appellate counsel has a continuing responsibility to his client, extending beyond the filing of a motion to withdraw and Anders brief, to facilitate the appellant's access to the appellate record should the appellant so desire. But we believe that the courts of appeals also have an on-going responsibility, once an appellant manifests his desire for pro se record access, to officially guide the process and follow through to make sure that such access is granted before they rule on the validity of appointed counsel'sAnders brief and motion to withdraw.

Appointed Counsel's Responsibility

Once appellate counsel is appointed to represent an indigent client, his only justification for filing an Anders brief is his ethical obligation to avoid burdening the courts with wholly frivolous appeals. (13) When his good-faith review of the law and record suggests to him no plausible grounds for appeal, appointed counsel's "duty to withdraw is based upon his professional and ethical responsibilities as an officer of the court not to burden the judicial system with false claims, frivolous pleadings, or burdensome time demands." (14) The purpose of the Anders brief is to satisfy the appellate court that the appointed counsel's motion to withdraw is, indeed, based upon a conscientious and thorough review of the law and facts; "the Anders brief is only the proverbial 'tail' [while] the motion to withdraw is 'the dog.'" (15) That being the case, the court of appeals may not immediately grant the motion to withdraw, even though the granting of a motion to withdraw is inevitable once an Anders brief has been filed. (16) Instead, the appellate court must wait "until such time as [it] has made a determination whether appointed counsel has exercised sufficient diligence in assaying the record for error, and that there are, in fact, no arguable issues in the case." (17) "Counsel's duties to his client are not extinguished until that time."(18) Appointed counsel's duties of representation, therefore, do not cease simply because he has submitted a motion to withdraw, along with supporting Anders brief, in the court of appeals. Until such time as the court of appeals relieves him of this professional obligation, appellate counsel must continue to "act with competence, commitment and dedication to the interest of the client and with zeal in advocacy upon the client's behalf." (19)

We have previously acknowledged that an appointed lawyer who files an Anders brief must fulfill a number of additional functions. He must write a letter to (1) notify his client of the motion to withdraw and the accompanying Anders brief, providing him a copy of each, (2) inform him of his right to file a pro se response and of his right to review the record preparatory to filing that response, and (3) inform him of his pro se right to seek discretionary review should the court of appeals declare his appeal frivolous. (20) To this list we now add that appointed counsel who files a motion to withdraw and Anders brief must also (4) take concrete measures to initiate and facilitate the process of actuating his client's right to review the appellate record, if that is what his client wishes. We think that the most time-efficient method to facilitate this right of review is to require that, at the same time that he files the motion to withdraw and Anders brief and carries out the notification functions (1) through (3), listed above, appointed counsel must also notify his client that, should he wish to exercise his right to review the appellate record in preparing to file a response to the Anders brief, he should immediately file a motion for pro se access to the appellate record with the applicable court of appeals. (21) Appointed counsel should include in his letter to the appellant a form motion for this purpose, lacking only the appellant's signature and the date, and inform the appellant that, in order to effectuate his right to review the appellate record pro se, should he choose to invoke it, he must sign and date the motion and send it on to the court of appeals within ten days of the date of the letter from appellate counsel. Counsel should make sure to supply the appellant with the mailing address for the relevant court of appeals. At the same time, appointed counsel should notify the court of appeals, in writing, that he has (1) informed the appellant of the motion to withdraw and attendant Andersbrief, (2) provided the appellant with the requisite copies while notifying him of his various pro se rights, and (3) supplied him with a form motion for pro se access to the appellate record (and the mailing address for the court of appeals), to be filed within ten days, so that he may timely effectuate that right, if he so chooses. (22) This way, not only can the court of appeals be assured that appointed counsel has fulfilled his obligation to fully inform his indigent client of his status and rights, but it can also be on the alert to receive directly from the appellant a motion for pro se access to the appellate record so that it does not inadvertently misconstrue the motion, if and when it arrives, as an impermissible attempt at hybrid representation, and therefore disregard it.

The Appellate Court's Responsibility

Once the appellant has filed his motion to make the appellate record available with the court of appeals, we think that the onus should shift to the court of appeals to ensure that, one way or another, this request is satisfied. Moreover, the appellate court may not rule on the motion to withdraw and the validity of the Anders brief until the appellant has been given access to, and an adequate opportunity to review, the appellate record. This, we think, is the optimal way to ensure that the indigent pro se appellant's right to review the appellate record in order to respond to appellate counsel's Anders briefs is honored.

So how do the various courts of appeals currently go about making arrangements for pro se access to the appellate record? Judging by their amicus briefs, the answer is that they do so in various ways, all of which seem to have met with reasonable success. Even within the same court of appeals, the procedure chosen may depend on the circumstances of the individual case. By the time an Anders brief can be filed, the clerk of the appellate court possesses the appellate record, but by rule the trial court clerk retains a duplicate that is specifically designated for use by the parties. (23) Zeroing in on this fact, many of the courts of appeals instruct the trial court to have its clerk make the duplicate appellate record available to the appellant, which generally requires the trial court clerk to forward a physical copy to the appellant if he is incarcerated. (24) Others simply send a letter to appellate counsel ordering him to obtain the trial court clerk's duplicate of the record and make that available to the appellant. Several courts of appeals have indicated that, if the record is relatively small, or if the appellant indicates that he has encountered problems obtaining the duplicate record from the trial court clerk, the clerk of the court of appeals will make a copy of the original appellate record and mail it directly to the appellant.

By all accounts, each of these procedures has worked tolerably well in the past, and we need not mandate or even recommend one over the others. Our only requirement is that, upon receipt of the appellant's motion forpro se access to the appellate record, the court of appeals enter a formal written order specifying the procedure to be followed in the particular case, sending copies of that order to the appellant, his appellate counsel, the State, the trial court, and the trial court's clerk, so that all interested parties are on the same page. (25) The order should also require the entity who is designated to arrange the appellant's access to the record (be that the appellate counsel, the trial court, or the trial court's clerk) to report to the court of appeals, in writing, when the record has been made available to the appellant so that it can then set a firm date for the appellant to file his response to the Anders brief, as well as a date for the State's response, if any. The court of appeals then must continue to monitor the situation and may not, in any event, rule on the validity of appellate counsel's motion to withdraw and Anders brief until it has satisfied itself that the appellant has been able to access the appellate record to prepare his response, in keeping with its order.

CONCLUSION

We hold that the court of appeals in the instant case erred to grant appointed counsel's motion to withdraw and declare the appellant's appeal to be frivolous without first satisfying the appellant's express request to gain access to the appellate record in order to meaningfully respond to the Anders brief. The judgment of the court of appeals is reversed and the cause is remanded to that court. After arranging for the appellant to have a meaningful opportunity to review the appellate record in accordance with the procedure we announce today, that court shall revisit its review of appellate counsel's Anders brief and motion to withdraw in light of the appellant's revised response, if any, and any response from the State.


DELIVERED: June 25, 2014
PUBLISH
1. Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967).
2. In his letter to the appellant, appointed appellate counsel informed him:
I do hereby inform you that you have a right to review the record and file a Pro Se Appellate Brief should you desire to do so. You have the right to request the trial Court to provide a copy of the record at no expense to you and the Appellate Court may grant a timely request for extensions of time for filing the Pro Se brief.
The record does not reveal whether the appellant made a request to the trial court for access to the appellate record.

3. In his petition for discretionary review, the appellant complains that the court of appeals denied his motion for access to the appellate record. We find no such written order in the appellate record explicitly denying the appellant's motion. But neither does the record indicate that the court of appeals took any step to assure the appellant's access to the appellate record before granting appellate counsel's motion to withdraw.
4. Kelly v. State, No. 06-12-00141-CR, 2013 WL 1804115, at *1 (Tex. App.--Texarkana Apr. 26, 2013) (mem. op., not designated for publication).
5. Id.
6. The court of appeals issued its opinion in this cause on April 26, 2013. The record before us contains a file-stamped copy of the appellant's pro se motion for rehearing, dated May 5, 2013, in which he renews his complaint that he was "not provided access to the clerk[']s record or the reporter[']s record[.]" Although it does not otherwise appear in the record, the appellant has attached to his petition for discretionary review a copy of a letter, addressed to the appellant, dated May 7, 2013, and appearing on the court of appeals's letterhead, announcing that on that date the court of appeals overruled the appellant's motion for rehearing.
7. This Court has never expressly held that access to the record is constitutionally required. But in Gainous v. State, 436 S.W.2d 137, 138 (Tex. Crim. App. 1969), we noted that "the careful trial judge made available" the appellate record. Likewise, in Price v. State, 449 S.W.2d 73, 74 (Tex. Crim. App. 1969), we observed that "the record was made available" to the indigent appellant. Following this example, in Brown v. State, 485 S.W.2d 914, 915 (Tex. Crim. App. 1972), we ordered the trial court to "make the record . . . available to appellant so that he might file a pro se brief if he so desires." Thereafter, this Court began to routinely abate appeals in cases in which it appeared that the appellant had been deprived of the opportunity to review the appellate record. E.g.McMahon v. State, 529 S.W.2d 771, 772 (Tex. Crim. App. 1975); Heiskell v. State, 522 S.W.2d 477, 477 (Tex. Crim. App. 1975); Hawkins v. State, 515 S.W.2d 275, 276 (Tex. Crim. App. 1974); see also Caraway v. State, 560 S.W.2d 690, 691 (Tex. Crim. App. 1978) ("[T]he defendant must be advised that he has a right to file a pro se brief and that he has a right to personally review the appellate record for that purpose."). Every court of appeals to address the question has held that the appellate record must be made available under these circumstances. E.g.Eaden v. State, 161 S.W.3d 173, 175 (Tex. App.--Eastland 2005, no pet.) (upon filing an Anders brief, appellate counsel must inform his client, inter alia, "of his right to review the record and to file a pro se brief"); Johnson v. State, 885 S.W.2d 641, 647 (Tex. App.--Waco 1994, pet. ref'd) ("[T]he record must show the defendant was given access to the [appellate] record before the attorney has fully complied with the requirements of Anders."); Russell v. State, 735 S.W.2d 254, 255 (Tex. App.--Dallas 1987, no pet.) (indigent appellant is not entitled to his own personal copy of the appellate record, but trial judge has a duty to "make the record available to the defendant"); see also Ex parte Owens, 206 S.W.3d 670, 674 n.28 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (noting Johnson's requirement that, when an appellate counsel files an Anders brief, he must inform his client of his right to access the appellate record).
8. See, e.g.Escobar v. State, 134 S.W.3d 338, 339 (Tex. App.--Amarillo 2003) ("[W]e have found no decision addressing on whom the responsibility falls of ensuring that an indigent appellant obtains access to the record for review for possible preparation of a pro se response in an Anders appeal."). Some courts of appeals have placed the onus on appointed trial counsel to at least inform the appellant of the proper procedure for securing access to the appellate record. E.g.Johnson, 885 S.W.2d at 647 n.2; Bruns v. State, 924 S.W.2d 176, 177 n.1 (Tex. App.--San Antonio 1996, no pet.); Evans v. State, 933 S.W.2d 334, 335 n.1 (Tex. App.--Waco 1996, no pet.). The Amarillo court of appeals has gone so far as to "hold that appointed counsel has the responsibility to procure a copy of the record for appellant to review in preparation of his pro seresponse to the Anders brief." Escobar, 134 S.W.3d at 339; see also Thomas v. State, No. 03-11-00294-CR, 2012 WL 935285, at *1 (Tex. App.--Austin Mar. 15, 2012) (not designated for publication) ("In an abundance of caution, we request a written response from appointed counsel verifying that his client has in fact received a copy of the appellate record.").
9. State's Brief at 16.
10. In re Schulman, 252 S.W.3d 403, 410 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008).
11. Kelly v. State, No. PD-0702-13, slip op. at 4-5 (Tex. Crim. App. Dec. 20, 2013) (not designated for publication).
12. "Under rules 34.5(g) and 34.6(h) of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure," the Sixth Court Clerk asserts, "we expect appointed counsel to promptly request permission from the trial court to obtain the duplicate clerk's and reporter's records filed with the trial court clerk for use by appellant in preparation of the response. See Escobar v. State, 134 S.W.3d [at 339]."
13. Owens, 206 S.W.3d at 677 & n.2 (Womack, J., concurring) (citing Tex. Disciplinary Rules Prof'l Conduct R. 3.01).
14. Shulman, 252 S.W.3d at 407.
15. Id. at 408.
16. Once an Anders brief is filed in Texas, there are two possible outcomes, both of which involve eventually granting original appointed counsel's motion to withdraw. Either the appellate court confirms that there are no non-frivolous grounds for appeal, thus extinguishing the appellant's constitutional right to appellate counsel, and grants the motion to withdraw, or the appellate court finds that there are plausible grounds for appeal, in which case the appellate court still grants the motion to withdraw, but remands the cause to the trial court for appointment of new appellate counsel. Meza v. State, 206 S.W.3d 684, 689 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006).
17. Id. at 687. See Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 82-83 (1988) ("[T]he Court of Appeals should not have acted on the motion to withdraw before it made its own examination of the record to determine whether counsel's evaluation of the case was sound.").
18. Shulman, 252 S.W.3d at 411. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 26.04(j)(2) ("An attorney appointed under this article shall . . . represent the defendant until . . . appeals are exhausted, or the attorney is permitted or ordered by the court to withdraw as counsel for the defendant after a finding of good cause is entered on the record[.]").
19. Tex. Disciplinary Rules Prof'l Conduct R. 1.01 cmt. 6.
20. Owens, 206 S.W.3d at 674 n.28; Meza, 206 S.W.3d at 689 n.23.
21. In the instant case, appointed appellate counsel advised the appellant to file a motion to obtain access to the appellate record in the trial court. While the impulse was laudable, we think the more serviceable recommendation would have been to file his motion (as the appellant actually did here) in the court of appeals. By the time an Anders brief in support of a motion to withdraw can be filed, the appellate record must already be on file in the court of appeals. That being the case, all further proceedings in the trial court are suspended. See Tex. R. App. P. 25.2(g) ("Once the record has been filed in the appellate court, all further proceedings in the trial court--except as provided otherwise by law or by these rules--will be suspended until the trial court receives the appellate-court mandate."). Thus, even though the trial-court clerk retains a copy of the appellate record, which may be available "for the parties to use with the court's permission[,]" Tex. R. App. P. 34.5(g), 34.6(h), the trial court is unlikely to be aware of the progress of the appeal, appointed counsel's motion to withdraw with attendant Anders brief, or the fact that the appellant's pro se right to review the appellate record has been triggered. The trial court, perhaps assuming that a pro se motion for access to the appellate record is, at best, nothing more than an impermissible attempt at hybrid representation on appeal, may well choose to simply ignore it.
22. Several of the courts of appeals have indicated that it is sometimes the case that, when the appellate record is not voluminous, appellate counsel will sua sponte send a copy of the appellate record to the appellant along with the Anders brief and motion to withdraw. That would certainly expedite the process, and the court of appeals could then simply issue an order requiring the appellant to file his response to the Anders brief by a date certain. But we do not require appellate counsel to do so. If appellate counsel should choose to provide a copy of the record to his client sua sponte, he should alert the court of appeals to that fact in his notification to the court of appeals so that the court of appeals will know to proceed directly to issuing its scheduling order.
23. At least the duplicate clerk's record is specifically designated to be retained by the trial court clerk "for the parties to use with the court's permission." Tex. R. App. P. 34.5(g). Although the trial court must also retain a duplicate of the reporter's record, curiously, the rules do not likewise specify that the duplicate reporter's record is for use by the parties. Tex. R. App. P. 34.6(h).
24. The Eighth Court of Appeals has a unique procedure. After making sure that appellate counsel has notified the appellant of his right to review the appellate record, the Eighth Court waits to act until such time as the appellant may actually request to review the record. If so, the court of appeals then enters an order directing the clerk of the trial court to forward the actual duplicate of the appellate record to the warden of the unit in which the incarcerated appellant is housed, for a specified period of time, with explicit instructions to allow the appellant supervised access to that duplicate record.
Several of the courts of appeals, including the Eighth Court, have expressed concerns about how electronic copies can be made available to pro se appellants who are incarcerated. It occurs to us that, similar to the Eighth Court's procedure with respect to the trial court clerk's duplicate copy, courts of appeals could order either the trial-court clerk or its own clerk to send an electronic copy of the record to the warden of the appellant's unit with explicit instructions to provide the appellant with supervised access to a computer upon which to review it or print it out.
25. About half of the courts of appeals designate appellate counsel as the party responsible for arranging for the appellant to gain access to the trial court clerk's duplicate of the appellate record. Even so, it is important for the court of appeals to enter a formal order to that effect and copy it to all of the above-named parties. This way, the trial judge and his clerk will be officially alerted to the fact that the appellant's counsel will soon be seeking access to the duplicate record, and the appellant will know that his desire to review the appellate record will soon be honored.

CONCURRING OPINION

Alcala, J., filed a concurring opinion


Although I agree that a court of appeals should not decide an Anders appeal until after a defendant who so desires has had an adequate opportunity to review the record and prepare a pro se brief, (1) I disagree with the majority opinion's creation of a new requirement that "the court of appeals has the ultimate responsibility to make sure that . . . the appellant is granted access to the appellate record." I disagree with this aspect of the Court's holding because an attorney--not an appellate court--has the ultimate responsibility to represent his client by obtaining the record for him if that record is necessary to the client's preparation of a pro se brief in response to anAnders appeal. I also disagree with the majority opinion's micro-management of the courts of appeals by now requiring them to enter a written order in every Anders case they receive, rather than permitting them to address these appeals in any way that achieves the desired result. Recognizing that there is no general problem here for it to fix, the majority opinion accurately observes that, "[b]y all accounts, each of these procedures [employed by the courts of appeals] has worked tolerably well in the past[.]" Undeterred, the majority opinion nevertheless prescribes heavy regulation of all future Anders cases in the form of the following requirements: (1) the court of appeals must issue a "formal written order"; (2) the order must "require the entity who is designated to arrange the appellant's access to the record . . . to report to the court of appeals, in writing, when the record has been made available to the appellant"; (3) the appellate court must send copies of the written order to "the appellant, his appellate counsel, the State, the trial court, and the trial court's clerk"; and (4) the appellate court must ultimately be responsible for getting the record to an appellant. This reminds me of the adage, if it ain't broke, then regulate it until it is.
I would resolve this case on the narrower basis that the court of appeals erred by deciding the Anders appeal without ensuring that Sylvester Kelly, appellant, had an adequate opportunity to obtain the appellate record and prepare a pro se brief in response, and on that sole basis I would reverse the judgment of the court of appeals. See Kelly v. State, No. 06-12-00141-CR, 2013 WL 1804115, at *1 (Tex. App.--Texarkana Apr. 26, 2013) (mem. op., not designated for publication). I, therefore, respectfully concur in this Court's judgment but do not join the majority opinion in fashioning an overly burdensome regulatory framework to combat a problem that appears to be confined to the facts of this case.


I. Courts of Appeals Do Not Have the Ultimate Responsibility to Provide A Record


Unlike the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, which do not place upon an appellate-court clerk the ultimate responsibility for obtaining an appellate record for a defendant, the ethical rules for attorneys do require them to zealously represent their clients until the point when they are permitted to withdraw from the case. The ultimate responsibility for providing a record to a defendant, therefore, properly falls on counsel.
Rule 12 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure describes the duties of an appellate-court clerk as docketing the case, placing the docket number on each case's record, safeguarding the record, permitting individuals to withdraw the record under certain conditions, accounting for any money received, and sending the parties notice of the judgments and mandates issued in the case by the court of appeals. See Tex. R. App. P. 12.1-12.6. Although the rules provide that the clerk must permit individuals to withdraw the record under certain conditions, those rules do not charge him with the ultimate responsibility to ensure that an appellant obtains access to or a copy of the record. Rather than place this burden on the appellate courts, therefore, this Court should reaffirm the well-established principle that an attorney must zealously represent his client.


The preamble to the Texas Disciplinary Rules for Professional Conduct declares that in "all professional functions, a lawyer should zealously pursue clients' interests within the bounds of the law." Tex. Disciplinary R. Prof'l Conduct preamble ¶ 3, reprinted in Tex. Gov't Code, tit. 2, subtit. G, app. A (West 2014). Having informed his client of his belief that any grounds raised on appeal would be wholly frivolous, counsel should communicate with his client to determine whether he would like a copy of the record to assist him in preparing any pro se brief in response to counsel's Anders brief. See id. ("In [providing zealous representation], a lawyer should be competent, prompt, and diligent. A lawyer should maintain communication with a client concerning the representation."). If his client desires to file a pro se response brief, then counsel has the duty to make sure that his client is given access to the record. See id. R. 1.01 cmt. 6 (a lawyer, once engaged, "should act with competence, commitment and dedication to the interest of the client and with zeal in advocacy upon the client's behalf"); R. 3.01 cmt. 1 ("The advocate has a duty to use legal procedure for the fullest benefit of the client's cause[.]"). And access to the record does not mean that an attorney merely tells a defendant where he can go to get the record or what steps he must take to get it, but instead means that the attorney is responsible for taking all the necessary steps to ensure that a defendant actually receives access to the record.
Here, when appellant asked counsel for a copy of the record, counsel did nothing to ensure that appellant actually received access to the record other than merely telling him to contact the trial-court clerk, which was inadequate to ensure that appellant would receive access to the record in time for him to prepare a pro se brief. Furthermore, counsel did not file a motion for extension of time asking the appellate court not to rule on theAnders brief or his motion to withdraw until appellant could obtain the record, review it, and prepare any pro se response regarding the Anders claim. See Kelly, 2013 WL 1804115, at *1 (observing that, as of date of opinion's filing, "no brief [by appellant] has been filed and no request for extension has been made"). By failing to render timely assistance in ensuring that appellant was given adequate access to the record, counsel failed in his duty to zealously represent his client. The court of appeals, aware that appellant was attempting to obtain the appellate record after his attorney had filed an Anders brief, erred by resolving the appeal without determining whether appellant had received the record and had been afforded an adequate opportunity to review it and prepare a pro se brief. The current rules that require an attorney to zealously represent his client until he is given permission to withdraw from representation are all that are necessary to ensure that a client receives access to the appellate record after his attorney files an Anders brief. It is thus unnecessary to impose new administrative regulations on the appellate courts for the purpose of resolving this case.
II. Conclusion

This Court's decision to impose new requirements on the courts of appeals will result in an unnecessary micro-managing of those courts' administrative processes and will absolve appellate lawyers in Anders cases of their ethical duty to assist their clients up to the point when they are given permission to withdraw from a case. Here, the parties agree that appellant should have been permitted access to the appellate record for the purpose of enabling him to prepare his response to counsel's Anders brief, and the record supports a conclusion that the court of appeals should not have decided this Anders appeal until after counsel had ensured that appellant received the appellate record and had an opportunity to review the record and prepare a pro se brief. Appellant, therefore, is entitled to have the opportunity to do this upon this Court's reversal and remand of this case to the court of appeals. The specific failure in this case should not be the basis for a blanket rule for the treatment of appellate records in all Anders appeals, which, as conceded by the majority opinion, are already being appropriately addressed by the courts of appeals at present. I, therefore, respectfully concur only in this Court's judgment.
Filed: June 25, 2014

Publish

1. See Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744, 87 S. Ct. 1396, 1400 (1967) (describing pre-withdrawal requirements for an appointed attorney who believes that an appeal is frivolous).

KELLER, P.J., filed a concurring opinion.

The principle of subsidiarity is the concept that a central authority should have a subsidiary
function, performing only those tasks that cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or
local level. It is the idea that problems are best solved where they occur in an organization. I believe
that the courts of appeals understand better than we do what is necessary to ensure that appellants are
able to review the appellate record. Despite the mistake in this case, it appears that each court has
a process that effectively addresses the matter. Because I think that this Court imposes an
unnecessary burden upon the courts of appeals, I join its judgment but not its opinion.

PUBLISH

The text of this decision is from the appellate court's website, copied on the date of posting. I do not warrant the accuracy of the text, as it may have been amended since this posting, or an error may have occurred in formatting.