Court Opinion

ID: 9754888
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:17:36.418368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:00.388488
License: Public Domain

MEYERS, J.,
concurring.
I agree that the trial court did not violate Appellant’s right to due process. I write separately because I disagree with the majority’s implication that Appellant had a due-process right to present evidence regarding his sentence at his probation revocation hearing. 218 S.W.3d at 91. I would instead say that Appellant’s due-process rights were satisfied when he plead guilty and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. At that time, his sentence was probated, and he agreed to conditions of community supervision. When a defendant violates the agreed-upon terms of community supervision, he is entitled to a revocation hearing, and nothing more. Appellant got that. The majority seems to say that Appellant had a *93due-process right to present evidence at his revocation hearing, but that he did not have a right to another hearing on another day. It also implies that, had Appellant been properly prepared for the revocation hearing, he would have had the due-process right to present whatever evidence and argument he wanted. The majority holds that, because he presented evidence at the revocation hearing, his due-process rights were not violated.
I agree that Appellant’s due-process rights were not violated, but for a different reason. Appellant was already found guilty by the trial court, and his sentence was already determined at a punishment hearing. This original punishment hearing satisfied Appellant’s due-process rights. Appellant was not entitled to another punishment hearing when his probation was revoked and certainly had no right to additional time to prepare for a hearing that he was not entitled to. Due process is not violated when a defendant does not receive something that he was not entitled to in the first place.
With these comments, I concur in the judgment of the majority.