In Re Sean Huston Brown

In this application for writ of mandamus, the relator requests that the trial court be ordered to enter a judgment nunc pro tunc awarding him a certain period of pre-trial jail-time credit. The court of appeals denied the relator mandamus relief. At issue in this case is whether the relator's incarceration under the original murder indictment should count as incarceration for the same "case" as the tampering with evidence "case" for which he was later indicted and convicted. It does not seem to be disputed that the murder and evidence tampering arose from the same core facts. Whether that should suffice to render them the same "case" for purposes of Texas Criminal Code Article 42.03, §2(a)(1), however, is a matter of statutory construction — manifestly a judicial rather than a ministerial function. Such a manifestly judicial function is not subject to revision by a judgment nunc pro tunc because any error in the judicial decision is not a "clerical" one, and an appellate court may not properly mandamus a trial court to enter a judgment nunc pro tunc in these circumstances. Accordingly, leave to file the relator's application for writ or mandamus is denied. Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, No. WR-75,485-01, 04-13-2011

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ORDER

In this application for writ of mandamus, the relator requests that we order the trial court to enter a judgment nunc pro tunc awarding him a certain period of pre-trial jail-time credit.*fn1 The Fourteenth Court of Appeals has already denied the relator mandamus relief,*fn2 and rightly so. Today we deny mandamus relief as well. We write additionally to alert unwary trial counsel of the need to address an issue such as the one presented in this case at the appellate level rather than relying upon the illusory promise of a post-conviction remedy. A motion for judgment nunc pro tunc or a writ of mandamus to the appellate court if such a motion is denied will provide a remedy only if the right to pre-trial jail-time credit is absolutely indisputable under the terms of Article 42.03, Section 2(a)(1).*fn3

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