Cortez v. Texas (Original)

A jury convicted appellant of fraudulent possession of identifying information, found two enhancement paragraphs in the indictment to be true, and assessed appellant's punishment at 50 years' incarceration. Appellant appealed, but the record that was transmitted to the court of appeals did not contain a certification of the defendant's right of appeal. Because of the absence of the certification, the court of appeals dismissed the appeal. Upon review, the Supreme Court held that instead of dismissing the appeal, the court of appeals should have ordered the trial court to supplement the trial record with a certification of the defendant's right of appeal. Therefore, the Court reversed the court of appeals' dismissal and remanded this case to that court so that it may order the trial court to submit a supplemental record that contains the certification.