Case Citator › Helms v. State

Helms v. State

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Overruled in part
Court
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Citation
484 S.W.2d 925
Decided
Confirmed treatments
6
Flagged citations read
71 of 71
Citing cases (total)
311
Treatment dates
1978–2000
Overruled in part
A reviewed court has overruled part of this case’s holding. Helms v. State has been overruled in part: all 71 flagged citations were read, with the 6 confirmed treatments listed below. The 1977 amendment to Article 44.02 displaced the guilty plea waiver rule for qualifying negotiated pleas, as the five statutory treatment decisions explain.
More on how this was screened

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later rejected the rule's broader form in Young v. State. Helms's separate holding that written documentary stipulations supported the conviction was not displaced by these rulings. Several indexed clusters supplied opinions without a Helms citation or appended unrelated opinion text; no treatment was inferred from those mismatches.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

311 later cases cite Helms v. State; 71 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Helms v. State?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Overruled in part

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the categorical Helms guilty plea waiver rule and allowed an appeal when the judgment of guilt depends on the challenged error.

    Young v. State · Texas Court of Criminal Appeals · filed

    The Helms Rule shall no longer be enforced in the terms in which it was stated in 1972. ... a valid plea of guilty or nolo contendere “waives” or forfeits the right to appeal a claim of error only when the judgment of guilt was rendered independent of, and is not supported by, the error.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Superseded by statute

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the amendment to Article 44.02 superseded Helms's waiver rule for plea bargain appeals of matters raised by written pretrial motion.

    Ferguson v. State · Texas Court of Criminal Appeals · filed

    To this extent the amendment of Article 44.02 supersedes the prior case law as stated in Helms, supra.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the statute departed from Helms only for qualifying negotiated pleas and left the waiver rule in force without a plea bargain.

    Prochaska v. State · Texas Court of Criminal Appeals · filed

    Given this limited abrogation of the Helms rule by the Legislature, we must reluctantly conclude that the rule remains viable in a case where a plea bargain has not been reached.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals allowed review of a written pretrial motion despite the Helms rule because the defendant's plea bargain qualified under Article 44.02.

    Craven v. State · Texas Court of Criminal Appeals · filed

    With the record in the shape it is in, we begrudgingly conclude that the trial court did honor a plea bargain, so under the Article 44.02 proviso appellant is entitled to prosecute his appeal from the adverse ruling on his motion to quash, and our review is not proscribed by the Helms rule.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that amended Article 44.02 liberalized appellate review of preserved issues that Helms's earlier waiver rule had barred.

    Galitz v. State · Texas Court of Criminal Appeals · filed

    So in the jurisdictional sense, the present version of Article 44.02 restricts the previously unfettered appellate right of the instant class of appellants; ... but, as a matter of appellate constraints, that appellate right has been liberalized by the amendment. For example, a rule previously applicable was as stated in Helms v. State, 484 S.W.2d 925, 927 (Tex.Cr.App.1972): ... Thus, the changes wrought by the 1977 amendment to Article 44.02, supra, touch appellate jurisdiction and, by operation thereof, some principles of appellate procedure; nothing more.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the amendment displaced Helms's bar on reviewing contested pretrial issues after a covered plea bargain.

    Morgan v. State · Texas Court of Criminal Appeals · filed

    Having thus encouraged pleas of guilty and nolo contendere in exchange for the right to appeal contested pretrial issues, the Legislature surely contemplated a meaningful appeal — one that addresses and decides each issue on its merits. The Helms rule of waiver barring review was superceded.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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