Baker's Legal Pages are a public service of Freelance Enterprises, Inc. Send your comments or suggestions to fei@bakers-legal-pages.com © 2003 Lang Baker This information is made available as a free public service for your personal, non-commercial use. While every effort has been made to provide accurate material at this site, it is provided "as is" and no representations are made that it is free of mistakes or inaccuracies. This file was derived from the text posted on the web site of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, by the automatic operation of conversion software, and may contain errors.
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Rickels v State June 25, 2003 No. 0462-02 Concurring opinion by Judge Womack Link to Majority opinion by Judge Keasler
IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
OF TEXAS NO. 462-02 TERRY RICKELS, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS ON DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
FROM THE THIRTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS
BEE COUNTY Womack, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Johnson, J., joined. The Courts description of probation as contractual (see ante, at 4) is one with which I have recorded my disagreement elsewhere.* This case illustrates the point, since the condition that was involved is not one that the appellant contracted to obey; it was added without a hearing, and Rickles had no opportunity to object (ante, at 4) or to decline to enter the so-called contract. I agree that the conditions of probation should be indeed, must be expressed clearly and explicitly so that the probationer under stands what is expected of him (ibid.), but that requirement is one of due process, not contract law. The proper analogy would be to a statute, which must be clear in order to be enforceable, but its enforceability does not depend on the law of contract. I therefore, respectfully, join the judgment of the Court but not its opinion. En banc. Filed June 25, 2003. * I also want to record my disagreement with the Courts continuing to describe probation as contractual, like a grant of clemency. Executive clemency is contractual because it requires acceptance by the convicted person. Probation may be imposed on a defendant who does not wish it, see Roberson v. State, 852 S.W.2d 508, 512 (Tex. Cr. App.1993), and it is therefore not contractual. A court (especially one that has imposed probation that was not requested) now has a number of alternatives to revocation for the recalcitrant probationer as the statute says, community supervision involves a continuum of programs and sanctions. These include shock probation, community-based programs, community corrections facilities, in-patient treatment for substance abuse, house arrest by electronic monitoring, confinement in jail, confinement in a substance abuse treatment facility operated by the Department of Criminal Justice (which looks a lot like a prison), and any (other) reasonable condition that is designed to punish, rehabilitate, or reform the defendant. It is the very ability of the trial court to put a defendant through such a continuum that would make the defendant refuse to enter the contract, and inspire the court to impose probation. Speth v. State, 6 S.W.3d 530, 535 (Tex. Cr. App. 1999) (Womack, J., concurring) (citations omitted). This information is made available as a free public service for your personal, non-commercial use. While every effort has been made to provide accurate material at this site, it is provided "as is" and no representations are made that it is free of mistakes or inaccuracies. This file was derived from the text posted on the web site of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, by the automatic operation of conversion software, and may contain errors. Baker's Legal Pages are a public service of Freelance Enterprises, Inc. Send your comments or suggestions to fei@bakers-legal-pages.com © 2003 Lang Baker |