Whether the Court of Criminal Appeals would entertain an original habeas application challenging confinement under misdemeanor judgments when the applicant had not first sought relief in the local trial or county court.
Holding
No. The court dismissed the original application because Rodriguez was required to seek habeas relief first from the trial judge or another authorized local judge.
Reasoning
The Court of Criminal Appeals emphasized that it does not hear evidence in original habeas proceedings. A claim about whether two jail sentences were properly cumulated could require factual development, making the local courts the proper initial forum.
For many years, the court had followed a uniform practice requiring a person attacking confinement under a misdemeanor judgment to first apply for habeas corpus to the trial judge, county court, county court at law, or district judge in the relevant county. Because Rodriguez bypassed that required initial remedy, the court would not entertain his original application.