Court Opinion

ID: 9668331
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:09:43.411044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:44.690562
License: Public Domain

KELLER, J.,
filed a concurring opinion in which McCORMICK, P.J. and WOMACK, J., joined.
I join the majority opinion’s holding that the Court of Appeals did not have jurisdiction to evaluate appellant’s due diligence claim. However, I do not, by joining this opinion, express any support for the legitimacy of the so-called “due diligence” defense. This “defense” appears to have been created out of thin air in Stover v. State, 365 S.W.2d 808 (Tex.Crim.App.1963), which was then relied upon without question in subsequent cases. See Stover, 365 S.W.2d at 809; Prior v. State, 795 S.W.2d 179, 183 (Tex.Crim.App.1990)(quoting Stover); Langston v. State, 800 S.W.2d 553, 554 (quoting Prior quoting Stover); Rodriguez v. State, 804 S.W.2d 516, 517-518 (Tex.Crim.App.1991)(citing Prior, Stover, and Langston); Harris v. State, 843 S.W.2d 34, 35 (Tex.Crim.App.1992)(citing Langston, Prior, and Rodriguez). Whether the law imposes upon the State the duty to exercise diligence in apprehending a probationer is a question worth reconsidering in an appropriate case.