Court Opinion

ID: 9774254
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:13:02.894956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:04.436794
License: Public Domain

VOLLERS, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the conclusion of the majority that this matter should be treated as an application for writ of mandamus and I concur in the result reached that the petitioner is entitled to relief. However, I feel that the majority is overlooking the plain wording of Article 44.02, V.A.C.C.P. which clearly provides that under certain circumstances a trial judge may deny the defendant the right to appeal where he “assesses punishment and the punishment does not exceed the punishment recommended by the prosecutor and agreed to by the defendant and his attorney . . . ” While this record before us clearly reflects that there was a plea agreement, it does not reflect that the agreement included an agreement by the defendant and his counsel and the prosecutor as to punishment. The record clearly reflects that the State was to recommend ten years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections while the petitioner’s attorney was to ask the court to grant probation. Contrary to the holdings of this Court in Lechuga v. State, 532 S.W.2d 581 (Tex.Cr.App.1975) I feel very strongly that there is a great deal of difference between the punishment requested by the petitioner of probation for a period of ten years and the punishment requested by the prosecutor of confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections for ten years. If the majority is holding that probation and confinement are the same punishment, I simply cannot agree.
The right to appeal is granted to every person in a criminal action who has been convicted, with the limited exception carved out by the legislature in its provisions enacted in Article 44.02, supra. This exception to the right of appeal should not be broadened by an interpretation that goes beyond the scope of the provisions which the legislature specifically enacted. I therefore concur in the result reached that the petitioner is entitled to an appeal because this record clearly reflects that there was no agreement as to punishment.