Bell, Jerrell, 541 S.W.3d 746

Background

In May 2011 Jerrell Bell pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and later served a 120-day county-jail term.
January 2012 lab testing showed the seized substance was not a controlled substance; the State sought to notify Bell and obtain counsel to assist him in post-conviction relief, but Bell was not located immediately.
Bell was indicted in July 2012 for felon in possession of a firearm, based on his then-existing drug-possession conviction as the predicate felony; the State had the exculpatory lab report by that time but did not notify Bell before his plea in the firearm case.
In March 2013 Bell pleaded guilty to felon in possession; he was unaware of the lab report undermining the predicate felony when he pleaded.
In October–December 2013 Bell obtained counsel, filed habeas, and this Court set aside the drug-possession conviction after concluding the lab results showed he was factually not guilty.
The habeas trial court and the State recommended relief on the felon-in-possession conviction as involuntary; the majority of this Court denied relief. The opinion here is a dissent urging grant of habeas relief.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Bell's guilty plea to felon-in-possession was voluntary and intelligent given undisclosed exculpatory lab results undermining the predicate felony	Bell: Plea was involuntary because he lacked material knowledge that his predicate felony was factually invalid; with that knowledge he would have made a different choice	State/Majority: Denied relief (majority opinion not described here); State agreed at habeas level to grant relief but Court majority declined	Dissent would grant habeas relief, finding plea involuntary for lack of awareness of exculpatory evidence
Whether a predicate felony that is later set aside always voids subsequent felon-in-possession convictions	Bell: Where the State knew the predicate was invalid before the firearm possession/charging, the later firearm conviction should not stand	State: Prior precedent (Jimenez) holds a later-set-aside predicate does not automatically void a felon-in-possession conviction	Dissent distinguishes Jimenez and analogizes to Cuellar; would not apply Jimenez to deny relief here
Effect of State's failure to inform defendant of exculpatory lab report before plea	Bell: State’s nondisclosure rendered plea unknowing and involuntary; State used an invalid predicate while aware of its infirmity	State: Argued (implicitly) that conviction need not be vacated; majority declined relief	Dissent: Failure to disclose was critical; court-appointed delay in locating defendant should not penalize him
Whether similarity to Cuellar supports relief	Bell: Like Cuellar, the predicate was undermined before the firearm possession/charge; defendant should not be penalized for delay in notification	State: Distinguishes Cuellar because predicate conviction had not yet been formally set aside when charged	Dissent: Analogous enough to Cuellar to support relief, given State’s knowledge of invalidity

Key Cases Cited

Ex parte Mable, 443 S.W.3d 129 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014) (a guilty plea is involuntary if defendant lacked awareness of facts critical to the plea)
Cuellar v. State, 70 S.W.3d 815 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002) (predicate conviction set aside before possession means defendant is not a felon and felon-in-possession conviction cannot stand)
Ex parte Jimenez, 361 S.W.3d 679 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012) (post hoc setting aside of predicate felony does not automatically void earlier felon-in-possession conviction)
Ex parte Lea, 505 S.W.3d 913 (Tex. Crim. App. 2016) (facially unconstitutional statute yields void conviction for an offense that never existed)
Ex parte Tuley, 109 S.W.3d 388 (Tex. Crim. App.) (standards for post-conviction relief based on new evidence)
Ex parte Elizondo, 947 S.W.2d 202 (Tex. Crim. App.) (standards for post-conviction relief based on new evidence)