Opinion
NO. 01-16-00315-CR
02-28-2017
EX PARTE NADIA IRSAN, Appellant
On Appeal from the 184th District Court Harris County, Texas
Trial Court Case No. 1501757
MEMORANDUM OPINION ON REHEARING
The State charged appellant, Nadia Irsan, with the third-degree felony offense of stalking. After the trial court initially denied bail, appellant filed a pre-trial application for a writ of habeas corpus and requested that a reasonable bail be set. After a hearing, the trial court set bail at $500,000. Appellant filed a notice of appeal and argued, in her sole issue, that the bail amount was excessive and violated the United States and Texas Constitutions and the Code of Criminal Procedure.
On December 29, 2016, this Court issued an opinion holding that the $500,000 bail set for appellant was excessive. We remanded the case to the trial court to set a reasonable bail.
At the trial court's direction, the Harris County district clerk's office filed a supplemental clerk's record on January 10, 2017. This record contained an order by the trial court, dated October 21, 2016, lowering appellant's bond amount to $150,000. The record also contained documentation indicating that appellant posted this bond amount on January 2, 2017.
The State has moved for rehearing of our December 29, 2016 opinion, arguing that because the trial court lowered the bail amount to $150,000 during the pendency of this appeal, and appellant then posted bond in that amount, this appeal is moot. The State requests that we grant rehearing, withdraw our December 29, 2016 opinion, and dismiss this appeal as moot. We agree.
"The longstanding rule in Texas regarding habeas corpus is that 'where the premise of a habeas corpus application is destroyed by subsequent developments, the legal issues raised thereunder are moot.'" Ex parte Guerrero, 99 S.W.3d 852, 853 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2003, no pet.) (per curiam) (quoting Bennet v. State, 818 S.W.2d 199, 200 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, no pet.)). Appellant originally appealed the trial court's setting of her bail at $500,000. During the pendency of the appeal, the trial court lowered the bail amount to $150,000, and appellant has posted that bail amount. The issue of the reasonableness of appellant's bail is thus moot, and this Court lacks jurisdiction over the appeal. See id. (dismissing appeal from pre-trial habeas corpus application as moot when trial court reduced bail from $100,000 to $25,000 during pendency of appeal, defendant posted bond in lowered amount, and defendant was released); see also Dix v. State, 289 S.W.3d 333, 335 (Tex. App.—Eastland 2009, pet. ref'd) (stating that Texas courts lack constitutional or statutory authority to render advisory opinions and that advisory opinions result when court "attempts to decide an issue that does not arise from an actual controversy capable of final adjudication").
We therefore grant the State's motion for rehearing, withdraw our December 29, 2016 opinion and judgment, and dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
PER CURIAM Panel consists of Justices Jennings, Keyes, and Brown. Do not publish. TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).