Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

I had asked the question about the validity of a plea bargain agreement for a lesser charge that the statute of limitations had expired on already. (I am the victim in the case not the defendant).

The offense occurred almost 7 years ago. The charges the defendant was indicted on had a statute of limitations of 10 years. The plea bargain that the prosecutor offered the defendant and he accepted was for a lesser charge. That lesser charge had a statute of limitations of 5 years. I can see the defendant agreeing to this knowingly and be planning to file an appeal. I have tried calling the prosecutor numerous times to discuss this as well as other issues that have made no sense to me but he is never available. So before I get too concerned I wanted to find out if there is a rule about this sort of thing that overrides the statute of limitations that I was unaware of.


Asked on 2/20/11, 11:20 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Cynthia Henley Cynthia Henley, Lawyer

I'm answering this off the top of my head without doing research but generally a defendant who makes a plea bargain is said to waive any complaint that he had to any procedural rights or laws that were applicable. If he gets the bargain that he agrees to, then he won't be heard later to complain that the statute of limitations had run. I'm fairly certain this is correct. (He wouldn't be able to raise the issue on appeal but I can see your concern that he might raise it on post conviction habeas corpus. But, the question would be under what constitutional protection would he raise it? The most arguable one would be ineffective assistance of counsel BUT no court would find his counsel ineffective for getting him a lesser offense when he is facing a greater one, even if the statute had run.) That is very astute of you to think of this.

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Answered on 3/22/11, 10:30 am


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