State of Texas ex rel. Patricia R. Lykos, Relator v. the Honorable Kevin Fine, Respondent

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals conditionally granted the Harris County District Attorney's petitions for writs of mandamus and prohibition to halt a pretrial evidentiary hearing on a capital-murder defendant's motion declaring Texas death-penalty sentencing statute Article 37.071, § 2 unconstitutional 'as applied.' The Court held the State has no adequate remedy at law because Article 44.01 does not authorize appeal of a pretrial advisory ruling on a punishment issue that dismisses no part of the indictment, and that the trial judge acted beyond his lawful authority because an as-applied constitutional challenge may be raised only during or after trial on the merits. Relying on the United States Supreme Court's capital-punishment jurisprudence, the Court concluded that generalized evidence about exonerations and wrongful convictions elsewhere is irrelevant and that a defendant has no wrongful-conviction or wrongful-sentencing claim before trial and sentencing.