Ex parte Spearman

1

EX PARTE DESTIN SPEARMAN, Appellant

No. 01-22-00735-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, First District

August 24, 2023

Do not publish. TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).

On Appeal from the 482nd District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 1747440

Panel consists of Justices Kelly, Hightower, and Countiss.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JULIE COUNTISS, JUSTICE

Appellant Destin Spearman, challenges the trial court's order denying his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus.^[1] In his sole issue, appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying him habeas relief.

We affirm.

Background

Appellant is charged with the felony offense of employment harmful to children.^[2] A Harris County Grand Jury issued a true bill of indictment, alleging that appellant, on or about October 26, 2020, "unlawfully, intentionally and knowingly employ[ed] and authorize[d] A.E.," the complainant and "a person younger than eighteen years of age, to work in a place of business permitting a child to work nude and a place of business permitting a child to work topless, namely, 7320 Ashcroft, Unit 204."

Appellant filed a pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus arguing that his confinement and restraint were unlawful because Texas Penal Code section 43.251, which establishes the felony offense of employment harmful to children, was facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution.^[3] According to appellant, section 43.251 was facially overbroad in that it "criminalizes vast amounts of previously unregulated speech and expression, and makes it a second-degree felony, punishable by up to twenty years in prison, for an employer in any business to 'permit' an employee under the age of twenty-one to show any part of their buttocks." (Emphasis omitted.)

Th[at] means, in essence, that a twenty-year old woman who owns her own pool cleaning business violates th[e] statute if she wears a bathing suit while working a shift. The [L]egislature drafted a law that outlaws anyone under [twenty-one] from modeling short shorts, underwear, or bikinis unless they are paid. It criminalizes speech that has nothing to do with any legitimate government interest and is unconstitutionally overbroad.

Appellant also asserted that Texas Penal Code section 43.251 was "a content-based restriction" of speech that violated the First Amendment, so it was presumed to be unlawful. And, according to appellant, even if section 43.251 was a "content-neutral" regulation, "the statute [was] drafted so poorly that it fail[ed] even intermediate scrutiny." In his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, appellant relied solely on the current version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251, effective September 1, 2021, in making his arguments.^[4]

In its response to appellant's pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, the State argued that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider appellant's constitutionality challenges to Texas Penal Code section 43.251 because a defendant can only challenge the constitutionality of the statute under which he is actually charged. And here, appellant, in his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, challenged the current version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251, effective September 1, 2021.^[5] Significantly though, appellant was charged under a previous version of the statute because appellant allegedly committed the offense employment harmful to children on or about October 26, 2020.^[6] As a result, according to the State, the trial court did not have jurisdiction to consider appellant's constitutionality complaints made in his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus.^[7] The State requested that appellant's pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus be denied.

The Texas Attorney General, in response to appellant's pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, filed a motion to intervene^[8] and a brief in support of the constitutionality of Texas Penal Code section 43.251. According to the Attorney General, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider appellant's challenges to the constitutionality of Texas Penal Code section 43.251 because appellant "was charged under the prior iteration of section 43.251," which "criminalized the employment of anyone under [eighteen] years of age in a sexually oriented business." Yet, appellant, in his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, "challenge[d] the amended [version of the] statute," which "criminalized employing an individual under the age of [twenty-one years old] . . . in a sexually oriented business." The amended version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251, effective September 1, 2021, "ha[d] no bearing on [appellant's] case," and the trial court "only ha[d] jurisdiction to consider the constitutionality of the version of the statute under which [appellant was] charged." Because appellant's pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus "d[id] not challenge the proper version of [Texas Penal Code] section 43.251 . . . his [pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus] c[ould not] have any bearing on the outcome of his criminal prosecution." The Attorney General requested that appellant's pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus be denied.^[9]

In his reply, appellant acknowledged that "the version of [Texas Penal Code section 43.251 in effect] at the time of [the commission of] his alleged offense was different than the current" version of section 43.251 in effect when he filed his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus. And he did not dispute that he challenged the constitutionality of the current version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251 in his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus. Instead, appellant asserted that the State was incorrect "to say that [a defendant] c[ould] only contest the parts of a statute that [he was] charged under." Appellant did not file an amended pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus challenging the version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251 that was in effect when he allegedly committed the offense of employment harmful to children on or about October 26, 2020.

The trial court denied appellant's pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus.

Standard of Review

A pretrial writ of habeas corpus is an extraordinary remedy. Ex parte Ingram, 533 S.W.3d 887, 891 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017). Unless double jeopardy is involved, pretrial habeas is not available unless the question presented, if resolved in the defendant's favor, would result in his immediate release from custody. Id. at 891- 92.

A defendant may seek a pretrial writ of habeas corpus to challenge the facial constitutionality of a statute, i.e., to attack the validity of the statute itself. See Peraza v. State, 467 S.W.3d 508, 514 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015). Whether a statute is facially constitutional is a question of law that we review de novo. Salinas v. State, 464 S.W.3d 363, 366 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015). When the constitutionality of a statute is attacked, we usually begin with the presumption that the statute is valid and that the Legislature has not acted unreasonably or arbitrarily. Ex parte Lo, 424 S.W.3d 10, 14-15 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). Ordinarily, the burden rests upon the party challenging the statute to establish its unconstitutionality. Id. at 15. However, when the State seeks to impose punishment for content-based speech, we reverse these standards: content-based regulations are presumptively invalid, and the State bears the burden to rebut that presumption. Id. at 15.

Jurisdiction

In his sole issue, appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying him habeas relief because the previous version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251, under which appellant was charged, is facially unconstitutional. Appellant asserts that it constitutes a "content-based restriction" that "does not survive strict scrutiny."^[10] (Emphasis omitted.)

As an initial matter, we first must address the trial court's jurisdiction over appellant's challenge to the constitutionality of Texas Penal Code section 43.251 raised in his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus. See Ex parte Waggoner, 61 S.W.3d 429, 431 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001); Ex parte Duckens, No. 14-21-00575-CR, 2022 WL 4962186, at *2 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] Oct. 4, 2022, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication).

To attack the facial constitutionality of a penal statute, a defendant must show that the challenged statute is "being invoked against him," meaning that the defendant was convicted or charged under the portion of the statute "the constitutionality of which he questions." Ex parte Ingram, 533 S.W.3d at 892-93; State ex rel. Lykos v. Fine, 330 S.W.3d 904, 909 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (internal quotations omitted); see also Ex parte Usener, 391 S.W.2d 735, 736 (Tex. Crim. App. 1965) ("[I]t is incumbent upon an accused to show that he was convicted or charged under the portion of the statute the constitutionality of which he questions."); Ex parte Duckens, 2022 WL 4962186, at *2. A defendant generally lacks standing to challenge the constitutionality of a statute under which he has not been charged. See Fine, 330 S.W.3d at 909; Ex parte Duckens, 2022 WL 4962186, at *2.

Although in his briefing in this Court appellant "challenges the [previous] version of [s]ection 43.251(b)(1) that applies to the allegation against him and not the current version that took effect [on] Sept[ember] 1, 2021," appellant, in his pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus filed in the trial court, did not challenge the previous version of Texas Penal Code section 43.251 in effect when he allegedly committed the offense of employment harmful to children on or about October 26, 2020.^[11] In...