Court Opinion

ID: 9863227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 03:16:01.263767+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:38:57.639905
License: Public Domain

CLINTON, Judge,
concurring.
I agree that the trial court erred in assessing a term of confinement in excess of the maximum authorized by law. For that reason alone the cause must be remanded. However, since Article 42.12, § 3, Y.A.C. C.P. expressly authorizes the trial court “to fix the period of probation without regard to the term of punishment assessed” so long as it is not greater than ten years, I cannot say with confidence of the majority that the Legislature did not intend precisely that which it wrote and, therefore, I would not say that § 3 may be read to limit a period of probation to the maximum term of confinement allowed by the statute. We should reserve the issue until presented with a situation where a trial court assessed punishment at a term within the statutory maximum but fixed a period of probation longer than the maximum but still less than ten years.
With that understanding I concur in the judgment of the Court.