Jones v. Texas (original by judge alcala)
Annotate this CaseAppellant Andrew Jones appealed the court of appeals’ dismissal of his appeal for want of jurisdiction. In particular, appellant contended that because the trial court’s certification of the right of appeal was defective by indicating that he waived his appellate rights, the court of appeals erred by upholding that certification as a basis for dismissing his appeal. Appellant claims that he did not waive his right of appeal because he did not sign any document that would be adequate to show a valid waiver of that right, and he further contends that the record does not otherwise indicate that he waived his right to appeal. The State maintained the court of appeals properly found that appellant waived his right of appeal based on the plea agreement. Pursuant to that agreement, the State abandoned one of the two punishment-enhancement paragraphs that had been alleged, thereby reducing the minimum punishment that appellant could have received from twenty-five years in prison to five. In exchange, appellant agreed to plead guilty, waive his right to trial, and waive his right to appeal. After review, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that, although he did not have an agreed punishment recommendation from the State, the record supported a determination that appellant did enter into a bargained-for waiver of his right of appeal in exchange for the State’s abandonment of the enhancement. The Court therefore affirmed the court of appeals.
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