Bailey v. Texas

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A jury convicted appellant LaJuan Bailey of felony failure to appear/bail jumping because she failed to appear as required for a pretrial court setting. The jury assessed punishment at ten years' imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. On appeal, appellant claimed she received ineffective assistance by her trial counsel because he violated the attorney-client privilege by questioning her prior trial counsel about confidential communications with appellant without appellant’s consent. Appellant also alleged that the trial court abused its discretion in overruling her mistrial motion, which was based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for that violation of appellant’s attorney-client privilege. The Court of Appeals overruled her claims and affirmed the judgment and sentence. Upon reconsideration of its original opinion, it withdrew that opinion and issued an en banc opinion, which also affirmed the trial court’s judgment and sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeals granted appellant’s petition for discretionary review, which raised five grounds for review. After careful consideration of each of the grounds raised, the Court of Criminal Appeals found that the assertions made in ground one were encompassed by the other grounds. The Court therefore dismissed ground one as improvidently granted. The court of appeals did not err in holding that appellant failed to prove that her counsel provided ineffective assistance by divulging privileged communications. View "Bailey v. Texas" on Justia Law