The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the highest criminal court in the state, holding the same position in the area of state criminal law that the Supreme Court holds in civil law. The Court of Criminal Appeals has appellate jurisdiction in all criminal cases (both felonies and misdemeanors). These records contain the most thorough documentation of the cases heard before the court. They consist of case files containing copies of documents filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (indictments, pleas of the defendant, statements of fact, testimony, bills of exception, assignments of error, charges of the court, verdicts and judgments, motions, orders, briefs, sentences, etc.), as well as documents created for or by the Court of Criminal Appeals (motions, briefs, arguments, orders, opinions, etc.), dating from 1909 through 1975.

Two numbering systems existed for the case files: one for the period of the three geographically distinct terms (1892-1909), and one--represented in this inventory--for the period of the centralized court (1909-1975). During the first period (1892-1909), each term (Tyler, Dallas, and Austin) maintained separate numbers for their cases; consequently, the same case number may be used for up to three different cases, requiring the researcher to specify which term he desires for that case (e.g. #889 Dallas). Beginning with the second period (starting October 1909), that of the centralized court, only one numbering system is used.

The dockets (assignment dockets before 1909) provide one way (if the researcher knows the year) of determining the numbers assigned to the cases heard between 1892 and 1925, although there are many gaps. Another way to determine the number of a case, especially if the researcher only knows the appellant's name, is through the general indexes (for the Tyler and Dallas terms before 1909, and for all cases between 1909 and 1947). Of course probably a better, quicker, and surer means of discovering the number is through the published Texas Criminal Reports, which has an alphabetical table of contents at the beginning of each volume.

This finding aid describes Texas Court of Criminal Appeals centralized court case files from file number 25007 on. For centralized court case files through file number 25006, see An Inventory of Court of Criminal Appeals Centralized Court Case Files (Part I: Through File Number 25006). See An Inventory of Court of Criminal Appeals Records at the Texas State Archives, 1892-2005 for the description of additional records series held by the Texas State Archives.

To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.

Note: Most of these records are stored at the State Records Center. Records requested before 10:00 a.m. will usually be available for review by an archivist by 4:00 p.m. the same day. Records requested after 10:00 a.m. and before 3:00 p.m will usually be available for review by an archivist by noon the next day. See the restrictions on access statement in this document for further information. A list of case numbers for missing case files follows, which the researcher should check before requesting that a case file be retrieved from the Texas State Library's State Records Center. Also important to check is the list of cases retained at the Archives Division (following the list of missing cases); these include the appeals for Jack Ruby and Billie Sol Estes, plus those for the period of missing cases (1899-1909), plus several others.