Court Opinion

ID: 9776058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:17:37.428664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:33.551774
License: Public Domain

*588KENNEDY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art. 17.09 (Vernon 1977) Sec. 1 provides:
Sec. 1. Where a defendant, in the course of a criminal action, gives bail before any court or person authorized by law to take same, for his personal appearance before a court or magistrate, to answer a charge against him, the said bond shall be valid and binding upon the defendant and his sureties, if any, thereon, for the defendant’s personal appearance before the court or magistrate designated therein, as well as before any other court to which same may be transferred, and for any and all subsequent proceedings had relative to the charge, and each such bond shall be so conditioned except as hereinafter provided. (Emphasis supplied).
I agree with the majority opinion down to the real question to be decided, i.e., is a hearing to revoke probation a subsequent proceeding where the defendant has never been convicted as is the situation in unadju-dicated probation? The majority would hold that the same rule should govern the placing of a defendant on unadjudicated probation to that of placing him on probation after conviction. I disagree.
I have read the cases annotated under Art. 17.09 as well as those annotated in 7 Tex.D 2d Sec. 75.2(2) and they are of little aid in deciding the threshold question mentioned above. Likewise, our Code of Criminal Procedure does not specify the exact date when sureties are discharged in a case which proceeds to trial. Apparently we are breaking new ground here.
I would hold that in a misdemeanor case a bail bond should bind the sureties thereon until a defendant is finally convicted. Final conviction should be the cut-off date.
In this I find comfort in the holding by our Court of Criminal Appeals that the sureties are so bound even after judgment of conviction as long as a motion for new trial is pending and even until sentence has been pronounced. McConathy v. State, 545 S.W.2d 781 (Tex.Crim.App.1976).
I would affirm the trial court.