magic words
The law is magic words. Letters written, syllables uttered: these have the power to change people’s lives—to imprison or execute, to free or spare. Lawyers are wizards, manipulating the substance of the universe to cast a spell that gets their clients what they need.
Sometimes what the client needs is to have trial put off while he appeals the decision of some matter raised pretrial in a writ of habeas corpus.
A court of appeals in Austin last week held in Ex parte Poulis that, when a defendant appeals the dismissal of a pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, the trial court has jurisdiction to proceed to trial.
(The dismissal of a pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus (which may only be challenged with an application for a writ of habeas corpus) is not the denial of relief on the merits (which may be appealed); the trial lawyer in Poulis was trying to use the writ to challenge the constitutionality of article 38.37(b) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure…