Scott v. State

OPINION

Can a successfully completed deferred adjudication be used to enhance punishment for a later offense when the provision permitting such enhancement did not exist at the time adjudication was deferred? We answer that question “no” and reverse the Court of Appeals’s judgment.

1. Background

In 1991, appellant pled guilty to the offense of indecency with a child in exchange for deferred adjudication. He successfully completed his deferred adjudication probation 1 but was later convicted of aggravated sexual assault. Over a defense ex post facto objection, the trial court permitted the State…