Opinion
No. 05-20-00262-CR
05-13-2020
CLEVELAND NIXON, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 282nd Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. F11-21243-S
ORDER
Recognizing this is a first motion for extension of time to file an opening brief, albeit one filed two weeks late and without explanation for its tardiness, we GRANT appellant's May 7, 2020 motion for extension of time to file his brief motion to the extent that we ORDER the brief due on or before June 30, 2020. We DENY all other relief without prejudice to filing additional extensions should they be necessary.
Regarding counsel's inability to access a law library and its digital resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we note that all Texas Bar members can access both Fastcase and Casemaker for legal research from via their "My Bar Page" at texasbar.com. Also, searching on scholar.google.com, being sure to select the "Case law" radio button below the search line, can prove exceptionally helpful in finding cases. After obtaining an initial search result based on terms, Google Scholar allows the user to narrow results by showing only Texas court cases, via a menu on the left side of the screen, and also allows the user to limit results by date. Searching by the "Articles" radio button can be helpful for finding legal scholarship. And, of course, all Texas statutes and the Texas Constitution are available at statutes.capitol.texas.gov. We are sympathetic to the difficulties caused by the pandemic, and face them ourselves; should counsel have further reasons supporting a further extension than we grant today, the court will entertain them.
/s/ CORY L. CARLYLE
JUSTICE