Ex Parte Burgess

OPINION

HERVEY, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court

in which KELLER, PJ., MEYERS, PRICE, WOMACK, KEASLER, HOLCOMB and COCHRAN, JJ., joined.

Applicant was convicted of aggravated robbery in the 90th District Court of Stephens County, where his deferred-adjudication community supervision for that offense had been transferred from the 194th District Court of Dallas County.

See

Article 42.12, § 10(b), Tex.Code CRim. PROC. Applicant filed an Article 11.07, Tex. Code CRim. PRoa, habeas corpus application with the Dallas County District Clerk for assignment to the 194th District Court of Dallas County, which recommended that habeas corpus relief be denied based on its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The Dallas County District Clerk forwarded the habeas record to this Court.

1

We filed and set this case to address the procedure to follow when, as here, an applicant files an Article 11.07 habeas corpus application with the district clerk of a county other than the county of conviction. We will dismiss applicant’s writ of habeas corpus.

*124

This Court last addressed the issue in

Ex parte Alexander,

861 S.W.2d 921 (Tex.Cr.App.1993). At that time, former Article 11.07, Section 2(b),

2

in relevant part, stated:

[Wjhenever a petition for writ of habeas corpus is filed after final conviction in a felony case, the clerk shall

transfer or assign

it to the court in which the conviction being challenged was obtained.

(Emphasis supplied).

Alexander

decided that this passage referred to a district clerk of a specific county and that this district clerk “is the clerk of the court for all the district courts in that county.”

Alexander,

861 S.W.2d at 922 .

Alexander

also decided that, under a “plain reading” of Section 2, “when an application is presented to a district clerk in a county in which the challenged conviction was not entered, the clerk shall

transfer

the application to the court in which the challenged conviction was obtained.”

Id.

(emphasis in original).

3

In 1999, the Legislature amended this portion of Article 11.07 to delete the “transfer” language.

4

Current Article 11.07, Section 3(b), (which, at the time of

Alexander ,

was section 2(b)), in relevant part, states:

An application for writ of habeas corpus filed after final conviction in a felony case ... must be filed with the clerk of the court in which the conviction being challenged was obtained, and the clerk shall

assign

the application to that court.

(Emphasis supplied).

A “plain reading” of Section 3(b) bespeaks a legislative intent to no longer require a district clerk to

transfer

an Article 11.07 habeas corpus application “to the court in which the challenged conviction was obtained” when the application “is presented to a district clerk in a county in which the challenged conviction was not entered.” Section 3(b) left intact the other holding in

Alexander

that “when an application is presented to the district clerk of the county in which the challenged conviction was entered, the clerk shall

assign

the application to the appropriate court.”

Alexander,

861 S.W.2d at 922 (emphasis in original).

The Legislature accomplished this by deleting the “transfer” language and retaining the “assign” language from former Article 11.07, Section 2(b). Any other interpretation of Section 3(b), would render the 1999 legislative amendment to Article 11.07 meaningless.

See Ex parte Trahan,

591 S.W.2d 837, 842 (Tex.Cr.App.1979) (in construing a statutory amendment, courts must presume that the Legislature intended to change the law, and courts should construe the amendment in a way that gives effect to the change rather than in a way that renders the amendment useless).

We dismiss applicant’s habeas corpus application.

JOHNSON, J., concurred.

1

. Applicant filed an earlier Article 11.07 habe-as corpus application in Dallas County. The Dallas County District Clerk forwarded that application to this Court, which dismissed the application without stating the reasons for doing so.

2

. See Act of June 16, 1977, 65th Leg., R.S., ch. 789, § 1, 1977 Tex. Gen. Laws 1974 .

3

.

Alexander

also decided that "when an application is presented to the district clerk of the county in which the challenged conviction was entered, the clerk shall

assign

the application to the appropriate district court.”

Alexander,

861 S.W.2d at 922 (emphasis in original).

4

.See

Act of June 18, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 580, § 2,

1999

Tex. Gen. Laws 3119 , 3120.