By Shannon Edmonds
TDCAA Executive Director in Austin
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
—Gideon Tucker, New York lawyer, judge, and politician (1866)
It’s the most wonderful time of the … biennium. Doesn’t have quite the same ring as the holiday classic by Andy Williams, does it?
Nevertheless, Austin is abuzz with activity that rivals the busiest Black Friday shopping mall frenzy as legislators from around the state are hard at work trying to pass all the thousands upon thousands of great ideas they and their constituents have thought up since the last session. By the time the bill filing deadline closes in mid-March, we expect as many as 9,000 bills and joint resolutions will be filed, which is many more than they actually have time to review and debate. And they all know that, too. Many bills get filed by a legislator with no intention of it ever actually becoming law, which is why you should be wary of lauding your legislators for merely filing a bill for you. Yes, it is a good start, but the filing of a bill is merely the end of the beginning of the process, not the beginning of the end.
If you are working on legislation that has been filed and need assistance or advice, feel free to reach out to us here at TDCAA. Or even if you don’t need any help, a text or email letting us know which bill number is yours is helpful to us and the other prosecutors working on legislation during the session. That way, if any of us get asked about that bill by a legislator or staff member, we know to refer them to you for further information. Things happen quickly down the stretch of a session and time is short. Don’t let your good idea die because not enough people know it is your good idea.
Changing of the guard
In February, the new Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock had the privilege of addressing the Legislature on The State of the Judiciary, a biennial rite of passage for that officeholder. His counterpart across the hall, Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) Presiding Judge David Schenck, gets no such opportunity, which is a shame. But it also got me thinking about the role of the presiding judge, or “PJ,” and I recently did some internet sleuthing. Did you know that Texans have elected only four PJs for the CCA? It’s true! Now, that trivia is a bit misleading because prior to 1970 the holder of that middle seat on the dais was selected by the governor. But ever since the PJ became a statewide elected office, it has been held by only four “The Honorables”: Jack Onion (1971–1988), Mike McCormick (1989–2000), Sharon Keller (2001–2024), and now David Schenck (2025– ).
Why is this type of continuity important? One answer to that question comes from something a wise ol’ prosecutor told me when I was a young ’un. I asked him if a particular judge was a “good judge,” and his reply was one I’ve often paraphrased and used as my own since then. In a nutshell, he replied, “What makes a judge ‘good’ is not how often he rules for or against you, it’s how predictable he is. You can plan for the predictable. It’s the judges who have no consistent judicial philosophy or approach to their role that cause craziness in the courtroom.” Over my years in and around the court system, I’ve seen that rule of thumb confirmed again and again, and perhaps you have, too.
So, as we segue into a period of new leadership at the CCA, I’d like to pause and tip my cap to Judge Keller, who was the first woman to ever sit on the CCA and who served the State of Texas as a prosecutor, judge, and presiding judge for more than 35 years. Hers was an honorable career of predictable public service for which she should be proud. In addition, I wish Judge Schenck similar good fortune as he embarks on his own PJ journey and hope it leads to many years of steady leadership for our criminal justice system.
TDCAA committees
We like to say around here that we are a “member-driven organization,” but what does that really mean? Well, one thing it means is that our members decide what the association should do and how it should do it. The most obvious mechanism for that is through our member-elected Board of Directors whom you can find listed on the “About” page of our website and on the inside cover of this journal. But we are much too big of an operation for that small group of members to direct and implement everything, which is why we also have committees.
Earlier this year, President David Holmes appointed more than 60 TDCAA members to serve on eight different standing committees (listed here alphabetically and including the appointed chair):
Bylaws (Jack Roady, CDA in Galveston County)
Civil (Charlie Madrid, Asst. CA in El Paso County)
Editorial (Erik Nielsen, Asst. DA in Travis County)
Finance (Philip Mack Furlow, 106th Judicial DA)
Legislative (Jacob Putman, Criminal DA in Smith County)
Nominations (Brian Middleton, DA in Fort Bend County)
Publications (Jon English, Asst. CDA in Hays County)
Training (Glen Fitzmartin, Asst. CDA in Dallas County)
If our board members run things from the cockpit of this proverbial ship, then these committees and their members are down in the engine room doing the dirty work along with our staff to move the ship forward. We are grateful for their expertise and assistance!
Each calendar year, a new president appoints committee members for these or other committees. If you have ever thought about getting more involved in your professional association, serving on a committee is a great way to do just that. Reach out to me at TDCAA HQ and I’ll be happy to put you on my running list of potential committee members for our next president to consider in 2026.
Mandatory Brady & Morton training
If you are an elected or assistant prosecutor who is just starting out in our profession and who prosecutes jailable (read: not Class C) criminal cases, Government Code §41.111 requires that you complete a special CLE course addressing your legal and ethical obligations under Brady v. Maryland and the Michael Morton Act. This training is to be completed within 180 days of your start date. And for those of you who have been at this game a long time but haven’t taken the course since before it was revised in 2022, you also must complete the new course during this current four-year cycle (2022–2026). You can find this online training on our website at www.tdcaa.com/training/mandatory-brady-training-2022. Upon completion, TDCAA will record your compliance and report it to the Court of Criminal Appeals and the State Bar of Texas, which will award you 1.25 hours of MCLE ethics credit.
This course was created in 2022 with the support of the Court of Criminal Appeals and TDCAF (our educational foundation) and is provided free of charge to anyone who wishes to take it. And yes, that includes non-lawyer prosecutor office employees and local law enforcement officers as well. Feel free to share this opportunity with them to make sure everyone on the State’s “team” is pulling in the same direction on these important issues. For more details on how to do that, contact Assistant Training Director Joe Hooker at [email protected].