I've got a capital case that desperately needs reindicting. I inherited it pretty late in the ballgame and there has already been a ton of filings, pretrial, etc.
Does anyone know if there is any sort of prohibition to just reindicting under the same cause number?
I've done it before without complaint from the other side, and just noted next to the cause # on the new indictment (Reindictment) or (Superceding indictment) but I'm wondering if it's really okay. Not surprisingly, the code and cases don't seem to say one way or the other.
I know most everyone (myself included) just reindicts under a new #, dismisses the old one, then files a motion to transfer everything from the old to the new, but I'm just curious whether anyone can think of anything that's improper about doing it the simpler way. Thanks in advance.

In my opinion, if the indictment is amended you keep the same cause number. But, if the grand jury returns a new indictment, then I guess it is up to the Clerk to determine whether it gets a different cause number in complying with her duty to "carefully maintain and arrange the records" of the court. See Sec. 51.303(a), Gov't Code. I would certainly think the practice of most clerks most of the time is to assign a unique number to each indictment as returned from the Grand Jury, whether or not it realleges an offense already on the docket. The cases seem to bear this out. See e.g., Hernandez, 939 S.W.2d at 667;Clark, 841 S.W.2d 536; Cantu, 842 S.W.2d at 676; Harris, 799 S.W.2d at 350; Jackson, 772 S.W.2d at 463; Coleman, 760 S.W.2d 356. But see Florio, 845 S.W.2d 849 fn. 1.

I think I agree. While there likely is no specific legal reason for having a separate cause number, I do believe that a subsequent indictment, even if a reindictment for the same offense, should be filed in a separate cause number.

The indictment might have come from a different grand jury. Different evidence likely was presented. There might be substantive differences in the offense. All of these things might not be sufficiently identified by a mere title of "Reindictment."