I have had the pleasure of meeting several of the judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) and they actually are quite nice, completely at odds with their "kill 'em all and imprison what's left" approach to the law. Sharon Keller is particularly pleasant, although her actions on the Court are too heinous to justify.

HOWEVER, even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then.

In the case of Ex Parte Evans, available on Google Scholar, the court upheld a trial court's finding in a Habeas proceeding that did away with the requirements that a felon who had been convicted of  Reckless Injury to a Child. The trial court made the express finding, and apparently it was nearly uncontested by the prosecutor, that there was no sexual offense element to the offense.

Nevertheless, in his/her infinite wisdom, a parole officer decided that he would impose Sex Offender Conditions on Evans when the parole was transferred to a new office. You can read about the exact conditions in the opinion referenced above. The conditions were so onerous that the defendant lost his job and soon his Texas parole was revoked for failure to meet the conditions that shouldn't have been imposed in the first place.

The CCA upheld the trial court's findings that the imposition of sex offender conditions without a conviction for those types of crimes and without the opportunity for a full evidentiary hearing on the matter. Mr., Evans was ordered reinstated to his Texas parole immediately and that the special conditions were removed.

If any of you are reading this and you have a similar situation, that of a loved one whose parole (and possibly probation) were revoked because sex offender conditions were placed on them even though it was not a sex crime, this opinion gives your attorney grounds to make a good run at getting the revocation reversed.

Kudos to the Court of Criminal Appeals for a good decision.

A Note:

People ask us "When is the time to start preparing a Texas parole packet?" Most of you know that a parole packet or a parole presentation package is a collection of documents and pictures sent to the Texas parole board to help them get to know the potential parolee a little better. This is particularly important in Texas since there is not an interview nor does the offender ever meet with an actual member of the parole board who will be voting.

Our answer as to when to start is always the same. 

Immediately.

There are many reasons for this, but the main thing to remember is it is better to have the information and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Many times it takes much longer to get the information together than you would think and people are forced to submit packets without all of the materials. When you are trying for parole in Texas you need every bit of help you can get.

We discuss the various parts of the packet in our eBook, How to Prepare a Texas Parole Presentation Package, available as a download which can then be used to prepare the packet or as a download and printed copy. As a bookstore, we can mail the printed copy to a prisoner at his unit or directly to you. By all means, if you can afford a parole attorney, hire one, but if you can't, our low priced eBook will help you to do the best job possible.