J. Woodfin Jones
J. Woodfin "Woodie" Jones was the chief justice on the Texas Third District Court of Appeals. He was first elected to this position in 1988. He left at the end of 2000 and was elected as chief justice on November 4, 2008.[1] He did not seek re-election in 2014 and retired at the end of his term on December 31, 2014.[2][3]
Education
Justice Jones received a B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, a J.D. degree from the University of Texas Law School in 1975, and a LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.[2]
Career
After law school, Justice Jones began his legal career as a briefing attorney for the chief justice of the Texas Fourteenth District Court of Appeals in Houston. He joined the firm Bracewell & Patterson in 1976. Justice Jones practiced business litigation with this firm until 1981, when he moved to the firm Sneed, Vine, Wilkerson, Selman & Perry. In 1988, he was elected to the Court of Appeals, where he served until the end of 2000. After this, Justice Jones worked as a partner of the firm Scott, Douglass & McConnico until 2003, when he co-founded the firm Alexander, Dubose, Jones & Townsend. He was elected chief justice of the Third Court of Appeals in 2008.[2]
Noteworthy cases
Tom DeLay's convictions for illegal campaign contributions, overturned
On September 19, 2013, Tom DeLay the former Republican Party House Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas' 22nd congressional district, was acquitted of all charges, overturning his 2010 conviction for his illegal campaign finance activities in the 2002 Texas elections.[4]
In 2010, DeLay had been convicted of conspiracy and money laundering for illegally funneling money from corporations to Texas candidates. He was sentenced to three years in prison and it effectively ended his political career. Since then, DeLay had been out on bail, pending his appeal. The prosecution argued that DeLay's motives involved gaining a Republican majority in the Texas State Legislature, redrawing district lines, and thereby keeping a political stronghold in the United States House of Representatives.[5]
The Texas Third District Court of Appeals overturned DeLay's convictions. Republican, Justice Melissa Goodwin wrote the majority opinion and was joined by fellow Republican Justice David Gaultney. Democratic Justice J. Woodfin Jones dissented.[4]
Justice Goodwin, in her opinion, stated: “The fundamental problem with the State’s case was its failure to prove proceeds of criminal activity.” Justice Jones, in his dissent, opined: “A rational juror hearing the evidence presented in this trial could have found that the relevant corporate contributions to TRMPAC (Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee) were made with the intent that they be used to support individual candidates or be put to other purposes not authorized by the state election laws."[5]
This is not the end, however. District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg for Travis County plans to appeal the case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.[5]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2008 election results," accessed October 28, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Third District Court of Appeals, "Official biography of Justice Jones," accessed October 28, 2014
- ↑ Statesman, "Lone Democrat on appellate court decides not to run again," September 17, 2013
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 NPR.org, "Tom DeLay's Conviction Overturned On Appeal," September 19, 2013
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Statesman.com, "DeLay appellate lawyer: ‘We won the Super Bowl’," September 19, 2013
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