# The Attorney General of Texas November 6. 1981 MARK WHITE Attorney General
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A” Equal OpportunItyi Affirtnatwe Action Employer HonorableJohn T.Montford CriminalDistrictAttorney 2nd Floor.County Courthouse Lubbock,Texas 79401
DearMr.Montford: Opinion No.m-386 Re: Application of articles 43.09 and 42.03 of theCode of Criminal Procedure to the justice courts
You ask two questionswhich relate to the application of certain criminalprocedure rules to the justice courts. Your firstquestion is: Does article 43.09, as amended by the 67th Legislature (Senate Bill No. 430) raising the credit for fines and costs 'laid out' from $5 to $15per day, apply to fines and costs assessed in justice court in view of article 45.53, which provides for credit of $5 per day? The Sixty-seventh Legislature amended article 45.53 of the Code of CriminalProcedure toprovide that a defendantplaced in jail by order of a justice court may serve out his fine at the rate of "not less than $15 for each day." House BillNo. 647,Acts 1981, 67th Leg., ch. 708, at 2648; see Code Crim. Proc. art. 45.52. Therefore, article 45.53 rather than 43.09 controls the credit for fines and costs assessed in justice court. Your second question is:

Does article 42.03 of the Code of Criminal Procedure require justice courts to give credit for pre-convictionjail time? The relevant sectionof article 42.03 reads:

sec. 2. (a) In all criminalcases the judge of the court inwhich the defendant was convicted shall give the defendant credit on his sentence for the time that the defendanthas spent in jail

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in said cause, from the time of his arrest and confinementuntil his sentenceby the trial court. This is a general statutewhich applies to all convictions in the absence of a more specificenactment. 863 (Tex.Grim.App. 1940). See Ex parte Young, 136 S.W.2d We have not found a more specific statute relating to the credit of jail time served prior to conviction in justice court. In interpretingthis statute, the Texas Court of CriminalAppeals has determined that a pre-conviction jail time credit against a defendant's later sentence is mandatory. Jones v. State, 545 S.W.2d 771 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977); Guerra v. State. 518 S.W.2d 815 (Tex. Grim. App. 1975). Therefore,because article 42.03 applies to justice courts as well as other state courts, they must give credit for pre-conviction jail time. SUMMARY

Justice courts must comply with articles 42.03 and 45.53 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

JOHNW. FAINTER,JR. FirstAssistant AttorneyGeneral RICHARD E. GRAY III ExecutiveAssistantAttorneyGeneral Preparedby Dawn Bruner AssistantAttorney General APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE Susan L. Garrison,Chairman Jon Bible Dawn Bruner Rick Gilpin Maury Hexamer Jim Moellinger BruceYoungblood g#

Attorney General of Texas

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