IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
OF TEXAS
NO. WR-79,465-01
EX PARTE AL LETROY SMITH, Applicant
ON APPLICATION FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS
FROM THE CAUSE NO. 43,698-01-A IN THE 47TH DISTRICT COURT
POTTER COUNTY
PER CURIAM . MEYERS, J., filed a dissenting opinion. JOHNSON , J., concurred.
OPINION
After filing and setting Al Letroy Smith’s application for writ of habeas corpus, this
Court handed down its opinion in which we held that a court may sua sponte raise and
ultimately deny an applicant’s claim on the basis of laches.1 Our opinion remanded the
application to the habeas judge to give Smith an opportunity to explain his delay in seeking
habeas relief.2 In response, the habeas judge entered findings of fact and conclusions of law
and recommended that Smith’s application be denied on the basis of laches. Specifically, the
1
Ex parte Smith, 444 S.W.3d 661 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014).
2
Id.
2
habeas judge found that, “[b]y [Smith’s] own acknowledgment in his habeas application,
applicant was aware of his right to appeal from July 2002 forward. As explanation for the
10 ½ year delay from conviction to the habeas application, applicant, through newly-
appointed counsel, points only to his misplaced reliance ‘on the care and vigilance’ of former
appellate counsel Wilson.”
Because at the time the judge entered his findings of fact and conclusions of law the
record did not contain Smith’s explanation for his delay, we remanded the cause to the
habeas court a second time. The record has since been supplemented to include Smith’s filed
pleading. Smith contended that, “[b]y inaction, counsel became an ‘unexpected or
unavoidable hindrance’” and that as a layperson he should not “be expected to know how
long he is expected to wait before concluding that he has been left without counsel and must
apply for relief himself.”
We find that the record as supplemented supports the judge’s findings of fact and
conclusions of law and therefore adopt them. Relief is denied.
Delivered: June 24, 2015
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