Howard v. State
Citation | 690 S.W.2d 252 |
Decision Date | 22 May 1985 |
Docket Number | No. 291-84,291-84 |
Parties | Clint Warren HOWARD, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
Court | Court of Appeals of Texas. Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas |
James P. Finstrom, Garland, for appellant.
Henry Wade, Dist. Atty., and Kathi Alyce Drew, Bill Edie and Mike Gillett, Asst. Dist. Attys., Dallas, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
Before the court en banc.
OPINION ON APPELLANT'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
Appellant was indicted for aggravated robbery. See V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 29.02. He pled guilty before a Dallas County Magistrate and was sentenced by the District Court to twelve years confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections. On appeal to the Dallas Court of Appeals, the conviction was affirmed. Howard v. State, 667 S.W.2d 265 (Tex.App. Dallas--1984). We granted appellant's petition for discretionary review to determine whether the trial court and the Dallas Court of Appeals correctly interpreted Art. 1918c, V.A.C.S., entitled the "Dallas County Magistrates Act" 1 to permit a magistrate to preside at a hearing on a plea of guilty when the parties have not agreed to the punishment to be assessed.
Art. 1918c provides in pertinent part:
"Sec. 4. (a) The judge of a court having a magistrate appointed as provided by this Act may refer to the magistrate any criminal case for proceedings involving:
(1) negotiated pleas of guilty before the court;
(2) bond forfeitures;
(3) pretrial motions;
(4) postconviction writs of habeas corpus;
(5) conducting examining trials;
(6) any other matters that the judge deems necessary and proper, except as otherwise provided by Subsection (b) of this section.
(b) In no event may a judge refer to a magistrate in a criminal case permitting the magistrate to preside over a trial on the merits, either with or without a jury."
The record reflects that appellant and the State agreed that in exchange for appellant's plea of guilty to the aggravated robbery charge, the sentence in another case against appellant would be identical to and run concurrently with the sentence received for the aggravated robbery. There is nothing in the record to indicate that appellant and the State agreed as to the length of the sentence to be set. The record also shows that the district judge referred the case to a magistrate who presided over the proceedings and accepted appellant's waiver of indictment, stipulation of evidence, and waiver of jury. The magistrate admonished appellant as to punishment, accepted appellant's judicial confession into evidence, and advised appellant that punishment would be determined by the district court judge. Appellant then requested that the rest of the proceedings be heard by the district judge rather than the magistrate. District Judge Kelly Loving presided over the remaining proceedings. Before Judge Loving, appellant again acknowledged his guilt, and Judge Loving confirmed the waivers of appellant's rights and pronounced sentence.
Before the Dallas Court of Appeals, appellant claimed, without the benefit of supporting authority, that the proceedings before the magistrate constituted a trial on the merits in derogation of Art. 1918c. The appellate court interpreted his contentions to mean that since the plea bargain agreement left open the question of punishment, a full trial on the merits was required.
The appellate court then held that:
"...
In his petition for discretionary review, appellant contends that the proceedings before the magistrate did not constitute a negotiated plea since no plea bargain agreement had been reached regarding punishment. Again appellant offers no authority for his assertion. We find his assertions unpersuasive.
We will first address what is meant by the term "negotiated plea." There is no statutory definition of this term so we may look to the common usage of the term and the legislative intent of the statute. Code Construction Act, Art. 5429b, V.A.C.S.
We have examined the use of the term "negotiated plea" in several written opinions of the court to determine its meaning. "Negotiated plea" appears with reference to a variety of topics. In Kass v. State, 642 S.W.2d 463, 466 (Tex.Cr.App.1981), we stated:
In Gibson v. State, 532 S.W.2d 69, 75 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), we stated:
In Cruz v. State, 530 S.W.2d 817, 821 (Tex.Cr.App.1975), we stated:
"In cases where the guilty plea is the result of a negotiated plea agreement, the trial court in exercising its authority to assess punishment also serves as a check upon oppressive or unfair bargains or those not in the public interest."
In each of these cases, the term "negotiated plea" is used in connection with plea bargain agreements. We may now turn to the legislative intent of the statute in order to fashion a proper definition.
The legislative intent of a statute may be extracted from the records of its legislative history. As is usual with most bills, the records are sparse. We have examined what few records exist regarding the history of Art. 1918c and have determined that this statute was intended to relieve the heavy docket congestion of the Dallas county district courts. 2
In order to do so, Art. 1918c provides for the appointment of magistrates to assist the district courts in the disposition of criminal cases. The magistrates act as agents of the district courts, and have no authority of their own. See Kelley v. State, 676 S.W.2d 104, 107 (Tex.Cr.App.1984). Matters which may be referred to the magistrates were set forth in sections 4 and 5 of the article. It is therefore apparent that the magistrates were to assist the courts by processing those matters not requiring ultimate judicial determinations.
When the legislative intent of the statute and the usage of the term are considered together, we...
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