The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest criminal court in the state, holding the same position in the area of state criminal law that the Supreme Court holds in civil law. The Court of Criminal Appeals has appellate jurisdiction in all criminal cases (both felonies and misdemeanors). These records document the activities of the court. They consist of minutes, opinions, dockets, indexes, account books, correspondence, press releases, and case files that may include transcripts, briefs, exhibits, statements, memoranda, motions, warrants, questionnaires, writs, photographs, videotapes, audio cassettes, and floppy discs, dating 1892-2008. Succinct documentation of the court's activities during the early years is found in the minutes (1892-1941), opinions (1892-1923), and opinion registers (1921-1954). There are gaps in the minutes before 1909, and many gaps in the opinions. The volume opinions should be supplemented by the published opinions or reports. The Archives and Information Services Division of the State Library has a complete set of "Texas Criminal Reports: Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Criminal Appeals" between 1892 and 1946. Other opinions and orders handed down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals range in date from 1925 to 1983 and are as brief as practicable while still addressing every issue raised and necessary to final disposition of the appeal. The court may affirm, modify, or reverse the judgment of the court below and dismiss the case, or render the judgment or decree that the court below should have rendered. It can also reverse the judgment of the court below and remand the case for further proceedings. Some opinions are filed by individual justices concurring or dissenting from the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Opinions for those cases ending in the upholding of a death penalty (and ultimately, execution) are also located in "Execution case files" 1974-2008. Orders primarily concern applications or petitions to file for writs of habeas corpus or writs of mandamus and date from 1953 to 1972. These applications are considered and either granted or denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Court terms were originally held between October of one year to June of the following year. Beginning in October of 1966, court terms were extended from October of one year to September of the following year. The dockets (assignment dockets before 1909) provide one way (if the researcher knows the year) of determining the numbers assigned to the cases heard between 1892 and 1925, although there are many gaps. Another way to determine the number of a case, especially if the researcher only knows the appellant's name, is through the general indexes (for the Tyler and Dallas terms before 1909, and for all cases between 1909 and 1947). Of course probably a better, quicker, and surer means of discovering the number is through the published "Texas Criminal Reports," which has an alphabetical table of contents at the beginning of each volume. For the period 1892-1975, the activities of the court are most thoroughly documented in the case files, which contain the legal documents filed with and during an appeal (motions, briefs, arguments, orders, opinions, statements of facts, testimony, etc.). A major gap appears in the cases, between about 1899 and 1908. Two numbering systems were used for the case files: one for the period of the three geographically distinct terms (1892-1909), and one for the period of the centralized court (1909-1975). [Note that Centralized court case files through file number 25006 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/50104/tsl-50104.html) and Centralized court case files from file number 25007 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/50105/tsl-50105.html) are listed separately online and appear at the end of the printed finding aid in the Archives Reading Room.] To access a case, therefore, the researcher needs to know three things: the number of the case; whether it was heard before or after 1909; and if before 1909, in which geographical term it was heard (Tyler, Dallas, or Austin). The execution case files date 1974-2008 and document the death penalty appeals heard by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Criminal Appeals is exclusive for cases involving the death penalty and the appeals process in such cases is automatic. The appeals document the cases of all prisoners executed in Texas from 1999 to 2008; also included are a few cases of executions between 1993 and 1998. Additional earlier death penalty appeals (prior to 1975) may be documented in the series "Case files." If you are reading this electronically, click on the link to go to the full finding aid (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals execution case files - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/30112/tsl-30112.html). If you are reading this in paper, the series finding aid is found at a separate divider within the binder. To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.
