explaining that Article 11.07 “provides the exclusive means to challenge a final felony conviction”
How later courts described this case
- explaining that Article 11.07 “provides the exclusive means to challenge a final felony conviction”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN
NO. 03-21-00068-CV
In re Brian Paniagua
ORIGINAL PROCEEDING FROM COMAL COUNTY
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Relator Brian Paniagua, an inmate in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
has filed a petition for writ of mandamus in which he asserts that the real party in interest, the
executive director of the Department, has abused his discretion by failing to recognize the
jail-time credit calculated by the trial court in connection with Paniagua’s conviction for the
felony offense of possession of a prohibited substance in a correctional facility.1 See Tex. Penal
Code § 38.11(g). Paniagua contends that he is being unlawfully confined and requests that we
command his release “from custody immediately.”
Paniagua’s complaint is that, based on the jail-time credit reflected in his
judgment of conviction, he is being incarcerated past “his presumptive discharge date,” a
complaint which is properly raised by filing an application for writ of habeas corpus in the
county of conviction. See Ex Parte Ybarra, 149 S.W.3d 147, 148 n.2 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004)
(“If applicant has been incarcerated past his presumptive discharge date, this is no longer a time
1
According to the judgment of conviction submitted by Paniagua in support of his
petition, he was sentenced to “two (2) years confinement in the Institutional Division, [Texas
Department of Criminal Justice],” “the sentence [to] run concurrently,” and was given jail-time
credit for “716 days.”
credit claim but an illegal confinement claim.”); Board of Pardons & Paroles ex rel. Keene v.
Court of Appeals for Eighth Dist., 910 S.W.2d 481, 483 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995) (explaining that
Article 11.07 “provides the exclusive means to challenge a final felony conviction”); see also
Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 11.07 (procedure after conviction without death penalty). Article
11.07 vests complete jurisdiction to grant post-conviction habeas corpus relief in final felony
convictions in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. See Keene, 910 S.W.2d at 483 (citing Tex.
Code Crim. Proc. art. 11.07 §§ 3, 5). Consequently, we deny the petition for writ of mandamus.
See Tex. R. App. P. 52.8(a).
__________________________________________
Chari L. Kelly, Justice
Before Justices Goodwin, Triana, and Kelly
Filed: April 15, 2021
2