Opinion
07-23-00131-CR
01-23-2024
MARIAN FRASER, APPELLANT v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLEE
Do not publish
On Appeal from the 19th District Court McLennan County, Texas Trial Court No. 2014-158-C1, Honorable David L. Hodges, Presiding
Before PARKER and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.
ORDER STRIKING APPELLANT'S BRIEF AND ON MOTION TO EXCEED WORD LIMIT
Per Curiam
Appellant, Marian Fraser, appealed the jury's verdict finding her guilty of murder and assessing a fifty-year sentence. The appellate record has been filed, and after extensions were granted in which to file her original appellate brief, on January 19, 2024, Appellant filed a brief simultaneously with a motion to exceed the word count limit of 15,000. The motion recites the final word count is 34,846, more than twice the amount permitted by the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. See Tex. R. App. P. 9.4(i)(2)(B) (setting the length of an original brief in an appellate court at 15,000 words if computer generated). While Appellant's brief is 157 pages in length and the word count is more than twice the amount allowed for all briefing, Appellant's motion is only one page and only provides two reasons. The reasons recited in the motion for exceeding the word count do not present extraordinary circumstances.
While not unsympathetic to the complexity of the murder case and the voluminous record, the Court hereby strikes the brief filed on January 19, 2024. The Court orders that an original brief not to exceed 20,000 words be filed on or before Wednesday, January 31, 2024.
This Court directs the State's original brief also be limited to a maximum word count of 20,000 words. In addition to the State's thirty-day deadline from the new filing date for Appellant's brief, this Court sua sponte grants the State an extension of time of thirty additional days in which to file its brief. The deadline for filing the State's brief is Monday, March 25, 2024.
It is so ordered.