Johnny Ray Abbott, Appellant v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals held that the Tenth Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to entertain an appeal from the trial court's post-judgment order denying time credit on a 180-day jail condition of community supervision, because no rule, statute, or constitutional provision authorizes such an appeal; appellate jurisdiction turns on whether an appeal is authorized by law, not merely whether it is precluded by law. The Court reversed the court of appeals' judgment — which had instructed the trial court to credit Abbott's prior prison time against the 180 days and release him — and remanded for dismissal, leaving undecided whether the trial court had discretion to deny the credit. Justice Holcomb, concurring, emphasized that a timely appeal from the judgment itself would have presented a valid claim, because the no-credit 180-day condition was unreasonable under Tamez's reasonable-relationship test and offended Pearce's double-jeopardy crediting principle.