Skinner v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The Legislature prescribes the jurisdiction of the appellate courts. Conferring a defendant’s general right to appeal, article 44.02 provides in relevant part: “A defendant in any criminal action has the right of appeal under the rules hereinafter prescribed....” Our cases indicate that a “criminal action” no longer exists after a defendant has been convicted and the direct appeal process from that conviction has been exhausted. For example, in holding that a trial court has no jurisdiction to order post-conviction DNA testing when the statutory requirements were not met, we explained: “When a conviction has been affirmed on appeal and the mandate has issued, general jurisdiction is not restored in the trial court.” Once general jurisdiction has expired, and absent direction from a higher court, a trial court can act only if, and to the extent, it is authorized to do so by a specific statutory source. Likewise, we have held that appellate jurisdiction to review a trial court’s order relating to postconviction DNA testing is limited to the appellate jurisdiction conferred by the DNA testing statute.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Varga v. State