Editor’s Comment: July/August 2021

I’m old enough to know that I’m still too young to get to toot my own horn regarding my wins and important cases.  There are far too many lawyers who have earned the right to do that in the pages that follow this article. Those men and women have spent far longer than I have changing the face of criminal defense in this State and bettering the lives of countless defendants. I am, however, old enough to tell everyone how important TCDLA is to me. My best friends belong to this Organization, and I can’t tell you how lucky I am to be able to say that. I’ll always remember Clay Steadman pushing me to get more involved; John Hunter Smith hearing me present the first time at a CLE and telling me I needed to keep speaking while immediately recruiting me to do so; David Moore asking me to serve and even chair a few committees during his Presidency; Heather Barbieri, Lance Evans, and Reagan Wynn all taking the time to help me learn as much as I could at the TCDLA Texas Criminal Trial College; Betty Blackwell and Clay asking me to speak in Austin at the seminar they were moderating (Clay told me I was in the big leagues and I better not f*ck this up and I better not say f*ck either); Sarah Roland asking me to serve as one of her co Vice-Editors; my good friends Sarah and Rusty Gunter recruiting me to come speak in Lubbock just so I could be introduced with my testicle case (don’t ask); Kerri Donica asking me to serve on her COVID-19 Task Force and fighting the good fight all over Texas for an entire year with one of the best groups of lawyers I’ve ever been around; and many other unforgettable times. My time in TCDLA has made me certain that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. 

For those that don’t know this about me, I went to college wanting to be anything but a lawyer. Specifically, a lawyer in Texas. More specifically, a criminal defense lawyer in Texas. Even more specifically, in El Paso, Texas.  My dad, Jim, is the best lawyer I know and I just didn’t want to have to work as hard as he has for as long I’ve been alive. But during college, it only took one science class for me to figure out I wasn’t going to be a doctor, so I started working towards law school.  I went on to attend the University of Oklahoma College of Law, never intending to practice criminal defense, and certainly not criminal defense in Texas, and absolutely not criminal defense in El Paso. My first day of Constitutional Law class set me straight, though; I was going to take a side in criminal law and that side was on the side of the good guys. Still, I sure as hell wasn’t coming back to Texas or to El Paso.  It turns out God had other plans and, for the last 10 years, I’ve been working alongside my dad, as a criminal defense lawyer, in Texas, working too hard but fighting the good fight. So, in addition to all of the friends I’ve mentioned, and all of those I haven’t, I have my dad, the person I’ve looked up to forever, to thank for getting me into what consists of the greatest group of people I’ve ever known. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have known after one day of law school what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I wouldn’t be who I am today.  He’s also the person who told me I had to join TCDLA because it was (and is) a giant organization of people who work too hard fighting the good fight every single day. That’s why all of the people I’ve mentioned are among my best friends. They understand what I do because it is what we all do on a daily basis, fighting the un-winnable fights because it’s the right thing to do (or maybe we’re all nuts). 

Be safe.

50 Years of Editors

Sarah Roland…………………………2016-2021

Michael Gross……………………….2013-2016

Greg Westfall…………………………2009-2013

Emmett Harris………………………2005-2009

David Richards……………………..2004-2006

John Carroll…………………………..2001-2004

D’Ann Johnson……………………..1999-2000

Suzanne Donovan…………………………..1998

William P. Allison…………………1995-1997

Jim Skelton……………………………1993-1995

Kerry P. Fitzgerald…………………1984-1994

Stanley Weinberg…………………..1981-1983

Clifton Holmes………………………1977-1981

F.R. “Buck” Files, Jr……………………….1976

Harry Lee Hudspeth………………1974-1975

Emmett Colvin……………………..1973-1974

Wesley H. Hocker………………………….1972

TCDLA

Jeep Darnell

Jeep Darnell received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma. Jeep is licensed to practice in Texas and New Mexico and licensed to practice before the United States District Courts for the Western District of Texas, the District of New Mexico and the Eastern District of Wisconsin as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Jeep has represented clients in everything from administrative hearings to felony trials and appeals and has a civil practice as well. He is a member of the El Paso Bar Association Board of Directors and a member of the TCDLA Executive Committee, Board of Directors, COVID-19 Task Force, and CDLP Committee, and serves as either chair or co-chair of the Technology Committee, Membership Committee and Listserve Committee. Jeep has spoken at seminars across Texas teaching lawyers about all aspects of criminal defense. Jeep is married to Meghan Darnell and they have two little boys, James Ford and Kennedy Patrick.