Jose Juan Juarez v. the State of Texas

In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-21-00081-CR
JOSE JUAN JUAREZ, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 402nd District Court
Wood County, Texas
Trial Court No. 240,070-2019
Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Justice Burgess
MEMORANDUM OPINION
On August 3, 2021, Jose Juan Juarez filed a pro se notice of appeal that failed to identify
the order from which he was appealing. We find no appealable order in the record before this
Court.
In Texas, a party may only appeal when the Texas Legislature has authorized an appeal.
Galitz v. State, 617 S.W.2d 949, 951 (Tex. Crim. App. 1981). When the Legislature passes
legislation granting a right of appeal, in addition to granting its citizens that substantive right, it
also grants the appellate courts of this State jurisdiction to hear such appeals. In the absence of
such authorizing legislation, appellate courts are without jurisdiction and have no authority to
act.
In the criminal context, the Texas Legislature has authorized appeals from written final
judgments and certain specific interlocutory orders. See Gutierrez v. State, 307 S.W.3d 318, 321
(Tex. Crim. App. 2010). As noted above, there is no appealable order in the appellate record
filed with this Court. Consequently, we do not have jurisdiction to hear this appeal.
By letter dated August 24, 2021, we notified Juarez, through counsel, of this
jurisdictional issue and afforded him an opportunity to respond. Although Juarez responded to
our letter, the response did not remedy the jurisdictional defect that prevents us from hearing the
appeal.
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Because there is no appealable order in the appellate record, we lack jurisdiction over this
appeal. Consequently, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.
Ralph K. Burgess
Justice
Date Submitted: September 15, 2021
Date Decided: September 16, 2021
Do Not Publish
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