Michael Edward Keasler (born August 16, 1942),[1] was a judge of the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state court of last resort for criminal cases in Texas, from January 1999 to December 2020.

Mike Keasler
Place 6 Judge of the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
In office
January 1, 1999 – December 31, 2020
Preceded byCharlie Baird
Succeeded byJesse McClure
Personal details
Born (1942-08-16) August 16, 1942 (age 82)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Nancy Lawson Keasler
(m. 1969)
Children1
Residence(s)Austin, Travis County
Texas
Alma materUniversity of Texas, Austin (B.A, J.D)

Keasler received a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by an LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law.[2] He was assistant district attorney for Dallas County from 1969 to 1981, and thereafter judge of the 292nd District Court in Dallas, to which he was appointed by Governor Bill Clements in September 1981.[3]

Keasler was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as a Republican in 1998, and was re-elected in 2004 and 2010.[2] Keasler was renominated in the Spring of 2016,[4] and reelected to a fourth six-year term in the general election held on November 8, 2016. With 4,785,012 votes (55 percent), he defeated the Democrat Robert Burns, who polled 3,558,844 ballots (40.9 percent). The remaining 360,167 votes (4.1 percent) were secured by the Libertarian nominee, Mark W. Bennett. Burns had received 957,162 votes running unopposed in the Democratic primary on March 1.[5] Keasler reached mandatory retirement on December 31, 2020.

References

edit
  1. ^ "Judge Michael Keasler's Biography". Project Vote Smart. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Judge Michael Keasler". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  3. ^ "Judge Michael Keasler". txcourts.gov. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  4. ^ "Republican primary returns". Texas Secretary of State. March 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
  5. ^ "Election Results". Texas Secretary of State. November 8, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Place 6

1999–2020
Succeeded by