# Smith v. State

> Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas · March 13, 2002 · 70 S.W.3d 848

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9656917

## Case

- **Full name:** Sean Allen SMITH, Appellant, v. the STATE of Texas
- **Court:** Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
- **Decided:** March 13, 2002
- **Citations:** 70 S.W.3d 848; 2002 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 47; 2002 WL 384965
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Johnson
- **Judges:** Womack, Meyers, Price, Johnson, Holcomb, Cochran, Keller, Keasler, Hervey
- **Cited by:** 48 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9656917

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that the trial court must “approve[] the dismissal that results from an immunity agreement”

## Opinion text

JOHNSON, J.,
filed a concurring opinion.
The opinion of the Court cites to Graham v. State, 994 S.W.2d 651 (Tex.Crim.App.1999), and again uses the terms “immunity agreement” and “agreement not to prosecute” interchangeably, one of the bases on which I differed with the majority in Graham. See id. at 657-658 (Johnson, J., concurring). I am unable to equate logically “a prosecutorial promise to dismiss a case” (ante at 851), with a prosecu-torial promise not to file at all. However, this case is unlike Graham , in that criminal charges were filed and then dismissed with the approval of a judge and that both sides agreed at that time that there was an immunity agreement. I agree that once criminal charges are filed, whether by information or indictment, the approval of a judge is needed to dismiss them. I continue to believe that, until charges are filed, a dismissal of a complaint or a decision not to file formal charges rests within the sound discretion of the prosecutor and need not be ratified by a judge. With these comments, I join the opinion of the Court.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9656917. Public record. Not legal advice.