Court Opinion

ID: 9756480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:30:25.63435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:23.491670
License: Public Domain

EDELMAN, Justice,
dissenting on motion for rehearing en banc.
Current appellate rule 25.2(b)(3), even *173more than its predecessor,1 provides a simple, straightforward procedure for allowing appeals courts to readily determine whether they have jurisdiction over most appeals 2 from judgments rendered on negotiated pleas. See Tex.R.App. P. 25.2(b)(3). Rule 25.2(d) also adds a safety net which allows appellants to amend general notices of appeals to comply with the rule without a showing of good cause, even after a brief has been filed and the State has pointed out the defect. See Tex.R.App. P. 25.2(d).3
Where appellants do not avail themselves of this simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-remedy procedure for invoking the .appellate court’s jurisdiction on the few matters that can be appealed from negotiated pleas, as in this case and many others, (1) why should the limited and costly resources of the appeals courts be expended in searching records and deciphering handwritten notations in margins and docket sheets to make up for (and thereby reward) this disregard for the rules; (2) why should the appeals of other litigants, who have been diligent in following the rules, be delayed while the appeals courts are repeatedly called upon to engage in this exercise; and (3) why should this laxity be treated more favorably than other instances in which more understandable failures to preserve, or assign error to, complaints result in waiver?

. Current rule 25.2(b)(3)(A) requires a notice to specify whether the appeal is for a jurisdictional defect whereas former rule 40(b)(1) allowed jurisdictional defects to be appealed with a general notice of appeal. See, e.g., Lyon v. State, 872 S.W.2d 732, 736 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 512 U.S. 1209, 114 S.Ct. 2684, 129 L.Ed.2d 816 (1994).

. A remaining exception to the rule is presumably an appeal challenging the voluntariness of the plea. See Flowers v. State, 935 S.W.2d 131, 134 (Tex.Crim.App.1996).

.Although, technically, an amended notice of appeal is subject to being struck for cause, and amending a notice of appeal after an appellant’s brief is filed requires leave of court, how often are circumstances likely to legitimately justify denying an amended notice of appeal if good cause need not be shown to amend?