Texas Extradition Hold Timeline Calculator

How the calculator works

The Extradition Hold Timeline Calculator takes the date a person was arrested on an out-of-state fugitive warrant and projects the three statutory deadlines that govern how long Texas may hold that person while the demanding state pursues formal extradition. It adds thirty days for the initial commitment deadline, ninety days for the combined extension maximum, and ninety days for the independent discharge outer limit, then reports which deadline is next based on today's date and whether a Governor's Warrant has issued.

Texas's interstate-extradition law is the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act (UCEA), codified as a single article — Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 51.13 — divided into numbered sections. The three periods this tool computes come from three specific provisions, and getting the citation right matters: the 30-day hold is section 15 of article 51.13, not article 51.07. Article 51.07 is a separate provision titled "Discharge" that supplies the 90-day outer limit.

A worked example

Suppose someone is arrested in Frisco on March 1 on a fugitive-from-justice warrant out of another state, and no Governor's Warrant has issued. The calculator would report a 30-day commitment deadline of about March 31 (arrest plus thirty days under section 15), an extension maximum of about May 30 (thirty days plus up to sixty more under section 17, ninety days total), and a 90-day discharge outer limit of about May 30 under article 51.07 if no Governor's Warrant has arrived by then. Notice that the extension maximum and the discharge outer limit land on the same calendar day because both trace back to the same ninety-day arithmetic — but they come from different statutes and serve different functions: section 17 authorizes a discretionary recommitment, while article 51.07 mandates discharge. The tool also reads today's date against those milestones so it can tell you which deadline is next and how many days remain, and it re-frames the "next step" the moment you indicate a Governor's Warrant has issued.

The 30-day commitment deadline (art. 51.13, § 15)

The 30-day period is the "commitment to await requisition." After an arrest on a fugitive warrant, a Texas judge or magistrate may commit the person to county jail for a period not exceeding thirty days so the demanding state has time to obtain a Governor's Warrant — unless the person posts bail or is discharged.

This is the deadline most families feel first. If the demanding state does not move promptly, the initial thirty-day window is when a defense attorney can press the court on whether the paperwork supports continued detention, argue for bail under section 16, or prepare a habeas challenge if a Governor's Warrant later issues. The calculator marks this date as the near-term deadline whenever no Governor's Warrant has yet arrived.

The 60-day extension (art. 51.13, § 17)

The thirty-day commitment is not necessarily the end. If the person has not been arrested under a Governor's Warrant by the time the initial commitment expires, the court has options: discharge the person, recommit for a further period not to exceed sixty days, or again admit the person to bail for up to sixty days.

Doing the arithmetic: thirty days under section 15 plus up to sixty more days under section 17 equals a ninety-day maximum for the commitment machinery. The calculator reports this combined ninety-day figure as the "extension maximum" so families understand the outer edge of a lawful recommitment — while making clear the recommitment is discretionary, not automatic.

The 90-day discharge outer limit (art. 51.07)

Separate from the commitment sections, a stand-alone article caps the whole pre-Governor's-Warrant process. It is a discharge provision: a fugitive who has not been arrested on a Governor's Warrant within ninety days must be discharged.

The calculator surfaces this ninety-day date as the discharge outer limit and flags it only when no Governor's Warrant has issued, because once a valid Governor's Warrant arrives the analysis shifts away from the pre-requisition discharge clock and toward surrender, bail under section 16, and any habeas challenge to the warrant's validity.

What the Governor's Warrant changes

The Governor's Warrant is the pivot point of the whole timeline. Before it issues, the person is held on the fugitive warrant under the thirty-day / sixty-day / ninety-day framework above. Once a valid Governor's Warrant issues, the pre-requisition discharge clock of article 51.07 no longer drives release, and the person may be held for surrender to the demanding state.

That does not end the defense. Under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 51.13, § 10, a person arrested on a Governor's Warrant may not be delivered to the demanding state until first taken before a court, informed of the demand and the right to counsel, and given a reasonable time to apply for a writ of habeas corpus. On that writ, the asylum-state court's review is narrow: under Michigan v. Doran, 439 U.S. 282 (1978), it can decide only whether the extradition documents are facially in order, whether the person is charged with a crime in the demanding state, whether the person named is the person held, and whether the person is a fugitive. When you tell the calculator a Governor's Warrant has issued, it reframes the "next step" around this habeas posture rather than the discharge clock.

Bail during the hold (art. 51.13, § 16)

A hold does not automatically mean no release. Texas law lets a judge or magistrate admit a fugitive to bail during the extradition process, subject to one major exception.

Whether bail is set, and at what amount, is discretionary. Posting bail also changes the practical meaning of the discharge date, because article 51.07 keys the ninety-day outer limit to the day of commitment "or the date of bail." The calculator does not model bond amounts; for that, see the extradition bail-bond satellite linked below.

The federal 30-day rule

Interstate rendition also has a federal statute that runs alongside the Texas UCEA. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3182, when a state demands a fugitive and produces a certified charging document, the asylum state must arrest and hold the person — but "if no such agent appears within thirty days from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged." That federal thirty-day discharge rule and the Texas commitment sections address the same problem from two directions. This tool focuses on the Texas periods under article 51.13 and article 51.07; a defense lawyer will look at both bodies of law together.

What this tool cannot tell you

The calculator projects fixed statutory day counts. Real cases move on facts the tool never sees. It does not decide whether a magistrate will grant a recommitment or bail, it does not account for an arrest that happened in another state (which can affect when Texas custody — and the clock — actually begins), and it does not resolve whether the demanding state's paperwork is valid. It also does not model weekends, holidays, or tolling that could shift a deadline. Use the projected dates as a planning reference and a prompt to act quickly, never as a guarantee of release on any particular day.

The timeline also does not tell you whether an extradition can ultimately be defeated. That is a separate legal question decided on a writ of habeas corpus, where — under Michigan v. Doran, 439 U.S. 282 (1978) — the asylum-state court's inquiry is confined to four issues: whether the extradition documents are facially in order, whether the person is charged with a crime in the demanding state, whether the person named is the person in custody (the identity question), and whether the person is a fugitive. A day count says nothing about how any of those four issues will come out. Two people arrested on the same date can have very different outcomes depending on the strength of the paperwork, an identity dispute, or whether a Governor's Warrant ever issues. Treat the dates this tool produces as scheduling information, and treat the merits of the extradition itself as a question for counsel.

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