Ex parte Eric Todd Williams
726 S.W.3d 210
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. Delivered: October 23, 2025. WR-96,658-01.
The legal issue
In March 2013, Eric Todd Williams pleaded no contest in Bexar County to online solicitation of a minor under former Penal Code section 33.021(b) and received a three-year sentence. Seven months later, the Court of Criminal Appeals decided Ex parte Lo, 424 S.W.3d 10 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013), holding section 33.021(b) facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
An unconstitutional statute is void ab initio—treated as if it never existed. Ex parte Fournier, 473 S.W.3d 789, 800 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015). A conviction obtained under a void statute is void. The remedy is habeas relief.
The State agreed. The trial court agreed. The application went up to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
What the Court held
Per curiam grant of relief. The conviction is set aside. Mr. Williams returns to the convicting court so the indictment can be dismissed in accordance with Lo and Fournier.
Justice Newell concurred and called out what the result did not require explaining: this should have been an easy case. The Court of Criminal Appeals has granted relief to people in Mr. Williams’s position many times since Lo. It will keep doing so until the dissenting members of the Court accept what the majority decided in 2013.
Read the opinion
Habeas counsel: Mark Bennett.