Following up on this post, about 300 Texas lawyers have petitioned the Court of Criminal Appeals to adopt a rule permitting the e-filing of petitions, motions, and other documents in death penalty cases. (UPDATE: Per this news report, the CCA has agreed to allow e-mail filingfor emergency motions in death penalty cases and other "extraordinary matters.")
As mentioned here, the Texas Supreme Court allows parties to e-mail documents in emergency situations, although it doesn’t consider them filed until it receives paper copies. Change is on the horizon, however, as the state legislature appropriated $2.3 million in the current budget cycle for the State Office of Court Administration to start working on the Texas Appeals Management and E-Filing System. As with anything government-related, it won’t happen quickly, but it will happen.
(Hat tip to the Tex Parte Blog.)