The Twelfth Court of Appeals sits in Tyler and covers Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Henderson, Houston, Nacogdoches, Rains, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Trinity, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood counties.
After a court of appeals decision, either party can file a Petition for Discretionary Review (PDR) asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider the outcome. The CCA grants only about 1.9% of PDRs from Twelfth Court decisions—the second-lowest acceptance rate in the state—but every case it has agreed to hear from this court over the past five years has ended with the lower court being reversed. Three justices cover 17 counties across Deep East Texas.
This Court hears appeals from pretrial habeas denials (articles 11.08 and 11.09) and from 11.072 rulings (community supervision). Habeas under article 11.07—the main felony route—is filed with the convicting court and decided by the Court of Criminal Appeals. See Direct Appeals and Postconviction Relief for the full map.
Twelfth Court of Appeals—Cases
- Ex parte Jones, No. 12-17-00346-CR (pretrial habeas). Unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material (“revenge pornography”) under a prior version of section 21.16(b) of the Texas Penal Code. On original submission we argued the statute facially violates the First Amendment as a content-based restriction that is not narrowly tailored and is overbroad; on remand we argued it is unconstitutionally vague as the Court of Criminal Appeals had rewritten it, because the limiting mental-state factors appear nowhere on its face.