This is the court that decides whether Texas got it right. When new evidence turns up years later — DNA, a witness who lied — a Judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals is who decides if the person walks free or stays in a cell. Your vote can help free the wrongly convicted while also protecting victims' families.
The Democratic candidate
Okey Anyiam
DemocratAbout Okey
Nearly 30 years as a criminal defense lawyer — and he says the state's top criminal court is too slow to decide anyone's appeal.
Licensed in Texas since 1997, Anyiam has spent his whole career on the defense side — trials, plea deals, diversion programs — and says the court's first job is to move cases faster and explain its rulings clearly enough that the next appeal takes less time. He and his wife raised four children in Dallas, where he still lives and practices.
Also on the ballot
Every candidate who filed for this office appears here. Tap a name to read more.
Thomas SmithAbout Thomas
An assistant attorney general in Ken Paxton's office since 2013 who joined the Trump legal team trying to overturn Arizona's 2020 result. Now he wants the last word on every criminal case in Texas.
The Arizona challenges he worked on were thrown out by the courts. At the Attorney General's office he says he helped write the sanctuary-city ban and human-trafficking bills, and in 2020 he was one of the Texans chosen to formally cast the state's vote for Trump at the Republican convention. He has never served as a judge.
Mark AshAbout Mark
A Houston criminal defense attorney fluent in Spanish who has run for statewide judicial office five times since 2018.
Ash earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and a law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston. He runs his own law practice, Mark Ash & Associates, representing clients in criminal courts at the state and federal level. He's a frequent Libertarian candidate, having previously run for Attorney General (2022) and Court of Criminal Appeals seats in 2018, 2020, and 2024, and is now the nominee for Place 3.
Where to vote
Hays County uses vote centers — any registered Hays County voter can vote at any open location in the county. Locations and hours by city: