Court Opinion

ID: 9647636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:43:38.780565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:51.533202
License: Public Domain

*90OPINION ON DISCRETIONARY • REVIEW ON THE COURT’S OWN MOTION
THOMAS G. DAVIS, Judge.
Appellant was convicted of murder in September 1980 and assessed punishment at 20 years confinement by the jury. Subsequently appellant’s motion for new trial was granted and upon re-trial, appellant was again found guilty by a jury. Appellant elected to have the court assess punishment at the second trial, and the trial judge, who had presided at the first trial, assessed punishment at 50 years confinement. On appeal, the Amarillo Court of Appeals found that the increased punishment assessed by the court violated the principles of North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969).1 The Court did not remand the case but instead granted appellant’s requested reformation of the punishment to 20 years. See McCullough v. State. We granted review on our own motion under Art. 44.-45(a), V.A.C.C.P. to determine the authority of the Court of Appeals to reform the punishment.
Art. 44.24(b), V.A.C.C.P., provides:
“(b) The courts of appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals may affirm the judgment of the court below, or may reverse and remand for a new trial, or may reverse and dismiss the case, or may reform and correct the judgment or may enter any other appropriate order, as the law and nature of the case may require.”
In Bogany v. State, 661 S.W.2d 957 (Tex.Cr.App.1983), we held that the authority of a court on appeal to reform a judgment under Art. 44.24, supra, does not extend to the situation where the error involves punishment unauthorized by law. A judgment or sentence may only be reformed “to cause those instruments to reflect the true finding of the fact finder when such a finding is reflected in the verdict or, in a bench trial, the pronouncement of the court’s finding.” Milczanowski v. State, 645 S.W.2d 445, 447 (Tex.Cr.App.1983).
In the instant case the judgment of the trial court assessing 50 years confinement was found by the Court of Appeals to be unauthorized under North Carolina v. Pearce, supra. As such, the Court of Appeals was unable to reform the punishment and should have remanded the cause to the trial court for the proper assessment of punishment.2
Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed. The cause is remanded for assessment of punishment by the trial court in accordance with North Carolina v. Pearce, supra.

. Appellant’s other grounds of error were overruled by the Court of Appeals.

. Such procedure has been followed in opinions of this Court which have involved unlawful punishments under North Carolina v. Pearce, supra. See e.g., Lechuga v. State, 532 S.W.2d 581 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Ex parte Bowman, 523 S.W.2d 677 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); Payton v. State, 506 S.W.2d 912 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).