Wiley v. Texas

The trial court found appellant was indigent and appointed trial counsel for him. Subsequently, the court accepted appellant's guilty plea for hindering apprehension and sentenced him to eight years' confinement in the penitentiary. Thereafter, the trial court suspended the appellant's sentence and imposed eight years' community supervision. Without making a finding that the appellant had the present resources to repay the county for his court appointed trial attorney, the trial court ordered the appellant to pay court costs, which, according to a bill of costs attached to the written judgment, included attorney fees. Appellant did not appeal at the time of the imposition of community supervision. But when the appellant's community supervision was later revoked and he was sentenced to eight years' incarceration, that's when appellant raised the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court's order to repay attorney fees. The court of appeals acknowledged that the evidence was insufficient to order the repayment of those initial attorney fees, but held that the appellant procedurally defaulted this claim by failing to raise an objection in the trial court at the time that community supervision was imposed. After careful consideration, the Supreme Court concluded appellant procedurally defaulted his claim. View "Wiley v. Texas" on Justia Law