Case Information
*0 FILED IN 1st COURT OF APPEALS HOUSTON, TEXAS 9/10/2015 8:09:41 AM CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE Clerk *1 ACCEPTED 01-15-00215-CR FIRST COURT OF APPEALS HOUSTON, TEXAS 9/10/2015 8:09:41 AM CHRISTOPHER PRINE CLERK No. 01-15-00215-CR In the
Court of Appeals
For the First District of Texas At Houston
No. 1411201
In the 248 th District Court Of Harris County, Texas JOSEPH BAILEY Appellant
v. THE STATE OF TEXAS Appellee
STATE’S MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE BRIEF To the Honorable Court of Appeals:
The State of Texas, pursuant to Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 2 and
10.5, moves for an extension of time in which to file its appellate brief. The
following facts are relevant:
1. The appellant was indicted for murder. Appellant pled not guilty, but a
jury found him guilty of the charged offense and sentenced him to 35
years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and the jury found
the two enhancement paragraphs for sequential penitentiary
sentences true. Appellant filed timely notice of appeal.
2. Appellant filed an appellate brief on August 11, 2015.
3. The State’s appellate brief is due on September 10, 2015.
4. The undersigned was assigned this case on September 1, 2015, less
than two weeks before the original due date.
5. This is the State’s first request for an extension in this case.
6. Appellant’s brief was originally due on May 26, 2015, however, this
Court extended appellant’s due date after sending a late brief notice;
and ultimately, appellant filed his brief almost three months after the
original due date.
7. The State requests a single extension of time in which to file its brief,
and the undersigned attorney believes that a brief will be filed on or
before November 10, 2015. The undersigned requests a lengthier
than usual extension for the reasons addressed below, and in hopes of
avoiding any further extension requests.
8. The following facts are relied upon to show good cause for an
extension of time to allow the State to file its brief:
a. At present, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office
employees 15 appellate prosecutors, but one is presently
deployed on active military service and unable to carry a
caseload. Moreover, the Division Chief is unable to carry a full
case load because of his administrative duties. Accordingly, the
remaining members of the appellate division are currently
assigned a caseload of approximately 58 active cases resulting
in an average of 4.5 briefs per prosecutor.
b. The attorney to whom this case is assigned has four
outstanding briefs assigned to her including this one, was
recently set for oral argument which will necessitate several
days of preparation, and has been scheduled to train Harris
County Prosecutors on how to assist in avoiding jury charge
error during the month of October, in addition to her regularly
assigned briefing duties.
c. Since appellant filed his brief, the undersigned filed the
following briefs in that same timeframe, namely: a lengthy 11
point brief in response on Richard Ramirez v. State , No. 01-14-
00957-CR, filed a supplemental brief in Forrest Penton v. State ,
No. 14-14-00406-CR, reviewed and filed the brief on a more
than 1,100 page record in Omar Ibrahim , No. 01-14-00785-CR,
and is currently reviewing the lengthy record in Jose Reyes v.
State , No. 14-14-01002-CR to file a brief in that case next week.
She has one other urgent brief in Leonard Storemski v. State , No.
14-14-00920 & 00921-CR that must be addressed before she
can begin work on this brief.
d. Appellant’s brief will take time to not only review the 12
volume record, but also to respond to appellant’s ten points of
error, many of which have sub-issues in them.
e. The workload of this prosecutor is not out of the ordinary in
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office.
f. In addition to its assignments in responding to appellate briefs,
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office also answers questions from trial prosecutors. These
questions frequently occur in the middle of or immediately
before trial, and therefore other work must be put aside to
answer these pressing questions. Harris County has 25
Criminal District Courts and 15 County Criminal Courts at Law,
and this particular prosecutor is tasked with answering
questions related to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article
39.14 regarding discovery changes, is one of two prosecutors
tasked with answering any juvenile law related questions, and
answers questions from five felony courts, the three juvenile
courts, and has been lately tasked with addressing questions
regarding commitment after incompetency and insanity
findings.
g. The undersigned was also recently tasked with assisting the
office in responding to H.B. 2398 and S.B. 888. H.B. 2398
significantly changed truancy statutes and affected 38,000
pending truancy cases in Harris County alone. S.B. 888 requires
the Texas Supreme Court to draft rules to expedite the
resolution of appeals addressing discretionary transfer from
juvenile district court to criminal district court. The
undersigned acted as the point person for the Office’s
recommendations to the Texas Supreme Court on suggested
rule changes to better accelerate such appeals. She served on
the Office’s E-File Committee which prepared for the upcoming
changes, and has assisted in drafting the written response to
the Order Adopting Proposed Statewide Rules Governing
Electronic Filing In Criminal Cases .
h. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office Appellate Division
is experiencing a significant workload at present. Appellate
prosecutors, including the undersigned attorney, are working as
quickly as possible to complete as many briefs as possible while
still addressing all the issues raised by appellants, as thoroughly
as necessary to see that justice is done on each appeal. Because
of the high workload per prosecutor, as well as the greater
length and complexity of appeals being brought in this county, it
often takes longer to process all of the assigned cases, and more
cases require multiple extensions, or in this case a more lengthy
extension, before the completion of the State’s brief.
WHEREFORE, the State prays that this Court will grant the requested
extension until November 10, 2015.
Respectfully submitted, /s/ Jessica A. Caird J ESSICA A. C AIRD Assistant District Attorney Harris County, Texas 1201 Franklin, Suite 600 Houston, Texas 77002-1923 (713) 755-5826 caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net TBC No. 24000608 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I certify that I have requested that efile.txcourts.gov electronically serve a
copy of this motion to:
Lana Gordon
Attorney at Law
3730 Kirby, Ste. 1120
Houston, TX 77098
LANAGORDONLAW@AOL.COM
/s/ Jessica A. Caird Jessica A. Caird Assistant District Attorney Harris County, Texas 1201 Franklin, Suite 600 Houston, Texas 77002-1923 (713) 755-5826 caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net TBC No. 24000608 Date: September 10, 2015