Governor's Of fice of General Counsel and Criminal Justice September 25, 1980 Governor ,01K (Or' Austin, Texas 78711 Phone (512) 475-3021 ._________AnIEW)_______ 0414A)---Sta- / (1 On . 74 William P. Clements, FROM: David A. Dean ck, Chief Justice Joe Greenhill would like to have a special joint press conference with you announcing support for SJR 36 which expands the Court of Civil Appeals to a Court of Appeals so they may hear and rule on criminal cases. Greenhill would like Senator Farabee to join in this joint press conference, if at all possible. Farabee was the author of SJR 36. Greenhill advises that Farabee will be in town on October 3 and October 17. I would suggest that a special 15-minute press conference be held on one of the days you will be in town. If you agree, I will arrange a mutual convenient time for you, Greenhill and Farabee to announce your joint support of SJR 36 to expand the Court of Civil Appeals to a Court of Appeals so they could hear criminal cases. Now, all criminal appeals go directly to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The facts are that the Court of Criminal Appeals has about 500 cases under submission and there are about 3,000 appeals which have been filed but have not yet been argued or submitted to the Court. If oral argument is requested, and it generally is, the average time from filing of appeal to oral argument is now about two years. It takes another ad- ditional two or three months for a disposition of a case after oral argument. The expansion of the Court of Civil Appeals to a Court of Appeals should greatly shorten the time from the trial to a decision on the appeal. Greenhill says that they will need 14 new appellate judges if SJR 36 is approved by the voters. This would give you an opportunity at this press conference to tell Greenhill, Senator Farabee, the Legislature, and the public that any new judges created by the Legislature will be acceptable only if they are to be appointed by you. The cost of the 14 additional judges and necessary staff is estimated at $1,443,113. I would suggest that you announce at this press conference that you will take a position on the other constitutional amendments sometime in the near future. Governor, it was quite apparent from Joe's remarks that he would really appreciate your help on this. He reminded me that you indicated your commitment to help him with this amendment during the last legislative session. DAD:blw DAVID A. DEAN General Counsel