Bannister v. State

In Bannister v. State, 552 S.W.2d 124 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977), the juvenile used a false name and lied to her attorney and the court about her actual age. 552 S.W.2d at 125. She claimed to be 19 or older but was in fact 15 years of age. The court concluded that since she was a juvenile at the time of the offense, the district court was without jurisdiction. Presiding Judge Onion, writing for the majority, commented that the Family Code and Penal Code as written allowed the juvenile to benefit from a fraud upon the court. Id. at 130. In 1995, in apparent response to cases like Bannister v. State, 552 S.W.2d 124 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977), the Legislature adopted Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 4.18(a). The statute provides (as amended in 1999): "A claim that a district court or criminal district court does not have jurisdiction over a person because jurisdiction is exclusively in the juvenile court and that the juvenile court could not waive jurisdiction under Section 8.07(a), Penal Code, or did not waive jurisdiction under Section 8.07(b), Penal Code, must be made by written motion in bar of prosecution filed with the court in which the criminal charges against the person are filed."