Rule Text
The Courts of Appeals, other than the Court of Appeals for the Fifteenth Court of Appeals District, shall have appellate jurisdiction coextensive with the limits of their respective districts in all criminal cases except those in which the death penalty has been assessed. This article shall not be so construed as to embrace any case which has been appealed from any inferior court to the county court, the county criminal court, or county court at law, in which the fine imposed or affirmed by the county court, the county criminal court or county court at law does not exceed one hundred dollars, unless the sole issue is the constitutionality of the statute or ordinance on which the conviction is based.
Amendment history: Acts 1965, 59th Leg., vol. 2, p. 317, ch. 722.
Amended by Acts 1981, 67th Leg., p. 802, ch. 291, Sec. 102, eff. Sept. 1, 1981.
Amended by:
Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 459 (S.B. 1045), Sec. 2.02, eff. September 1, 2023.
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Criminal appeals in Texas usually go to the Court of Appeals covering the area where the case was tried. Each Court of Appeals (except the Fifteenth Court of Appeals District) handles appeals from criminal cases within its own district. The one big exception is death penalty cases. Those never go to a regular Court of Appeals. They go straight to a higher court instead.
There's also a rule about small fines. If someone was convicted in a lower court, like a justice court, and then appealed to a county court, and the county court only ordered a fine of $100 or less, that case usually cannot be appealed further to the Court of Appeals. The only way it can move forward is if the person is challenging whether the law or city ordinance they were convicted under is even constitutional. If that's the real issue, the case can still go up on appeal even if the fine was small.
In short, this rule sets up which cases the Courts of Appeals can hear. It covers most criminal cases in their region, skips death penalty cases, and blocks appeals over very minor fines unless the fight is about the law itself being unconstitutional.
