Ex Parte Samuel Lyn Reaves

IN THE
TENTH COURT OF APPEALS
No. 10-21-00159-CR
EX PARTE SAMUEL LYN REAVES
From the 413th District Court
Johnson County, Texas
Trial Court No. F49661
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Based on the content of the document that Samuel Lyn Reaves has presented, we
have filed it as an appeal of the denial of an application for a writ of habeas corpus. It
appears Reaves is complaining that he has been held for six years on a judgment that
sentenced him to only four. However, the handwritten document presented by Reaves
is not entirely legible, and it is difficult to determine the procedural history or the precise
ground or basis for relief that Reaves is requesting.
We note that it is the Court of Criminal Appeals that has jurisdiction of felony post-
conviction applications for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to article 11.07 of the Code
of Criminal Procedure. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 11.07; Ater v. Eighth Court of
Appeals, 802 S.W.2d 241, 243 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991). Such writs must be filed in the
convicting court and made returnable to the Court of Criminal Appeals. TEX. CODE CRIM.
PROC. art. 11.07, sec. 3. Only if the appeal was from the denial of an article 11.072
application for a writ of habeas corpus would this Court have jurisdiction. See TEX. CODE
CRIM. PROC. art. 11.072, sec. 8. An 11.072 writ is available if a person is being unlawfully
restrained in his liberty due to the imposition of community supervision in either a felony
or a misdemeanor conviction. See id., secs. 1 and 2. Because Reaves affirmatively states
in the document that he is being held in prison on a felony conviction, to which 11.072
would not apply, we can definitively conclude that we do not have jurisdiction of this
appeal.
Accordingly, what appears to be Reaves’s attempted appeal of the trial court's
denial of his post-conviction felony application for a writ of habeas corpus is dismissed
for want of jurisdiction.
TOM GRAY
Chief Justice
Before Chief Justice Gray,
Justice Johnson, and
Justice Rose1
Appeal dismissed
Opinion delivered and filed July 14, 2021
[CR25]
1The Honorable Jeff Rose, Former Chief Justice of the Third Court of Appeals, sitting by assignment of the
Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. See TEX. GOV'T CODE §§ 74.003, 75.002, 75.003.
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