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casings in front of Applicant’s motel room door and event, his trial counsel performed in an
knocked. Applicant opened the door, but he unconstitutionally ineffective manner when he
immediately closed it again. Officers heard what recommended that Applicant accept the State’s plea
sounded like a “handgun chambering a round” bargain before he had adequately investigated the
inside and began to issue verbal commands through facts of the case.
the door. When Applicant again opened the door,
the police immediately rushed in and subdued him. The Conviction Integrity Unit of the Dallas County
Conducting a protective sweep, the officers found District Attorney’s Office has conceded that
a gun holster, but no gun. Applicant eventually told Applicant is entitled to relief on his first two
them the gun was under the mattress. He was claims, while withholding judgment with respect
arrested and pled guilty within a few weeks, in a to his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.
plea bargain in which he obtained a three-year The convicting court has, accordingly, entered
penitentiary sentence on a charge of possession of recommended findings of fact and conclusions of
a firearm by a felon, enhanced to a second-degree law in which it urges this Court to grant relief on
felony. As part of the guilty plea, the State agreed Applicant’s Brady claim and his claim that his plea
to drop a misdemeanor charge against him for was involuntary. The convicting court has made no
firing the gun off in the hallway. In addition, his recommendation, however, regarding Applicant’s
court-appointed trial attorney hoped to persuade ineffective assistance claim. Today, the Court
federal prosecutors not to seek federal gun- grants relief exclusively on Applicant’s claim that
possession charges since he would already be his plea was rendered involuntary by the State’s
serving state penitentiary time. Not long after tardy disclosure of the body cam video. Because I
Applicant’s guilty plea, the State revealed to the believe that granting relief on that basis is
defense for the first time that police body cam inappropriate, I respectfully dissent. I will discuss
recordings existed which showed facts about which Applicant’s first two claims together, and then
Applicant’s counsel had been unaware when separately address his ineffective assistance of
advising Applicant whether to accept the State’s counsel claim.
plea offer. The body cam recordings revealed that,
This Court has yet to definitively say, in a
after Applicant was subdued and handcuffed, he at published opinion, whether or not Brady applies to
first refused to reveal the whereabouts of the gun. a guilty-plea scenario. But even if we had, Brady
Officers then took him out into the hallway, and the would not apply to render Applicant’s guilty plea
door to the motel room closed and automatically
involuntary based on a missed opportunity to
locked, so that officers could not gain readmission.
exclude inculpatory evidence via a motion to
While out in the hallway, Applicant finally told suppress on Fourth Amendment grounds. The State
police that the gun was under the mattress. They has not withheld exculpatory evidence; there is no
obtained a room key from the motel clerk and re- suggestion that Applicant did not actually commit
entered the room to retrieve the gun—without first
the offense to which he pled guilty. I therefore
obtaining a search warrant. Habeas counsel was
dissent to granting relief, particularly in an
appointed, and Applicant now makes three claims abbreviated per curiam opinion, on the basis of
in his Article 11.07 post-conviction application for Applicant’s claim that his plea was rendered
writ of habeas corpus.
involuntary.
He claims that the State’s failure to disclose the
The United States Supreme Court has made it clear
body cam video prior to his guilty plea violated
that not every failure on the State’s part to impart
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). Relatedly, relevant information to an accused ahead of a guilty
he claims that the deprivation of this information plea proceeding will render his choice to accept a
prior to his guilty plea rendered the plea guilty plea involuntary for due process purposes.
involuntary. And finally, he claims that, in any

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