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As a District Judge who has tried over 500 felony and civil jury trials, Judge Bill Moody knows what it takes to dispense justice with integrity and efficiency – he’s been doing it for over 23 years. He puts in long hours at the courthouse because he knows that justice delayed is justice denied – which is why he listens carefully to both sides of the case and treats everyone who walks into his courtroom with dignity and respect.
Bill worked his way through Texas Tech Law School and was a distinguished military graduate in college. He was then commissioned as an officer in the US Army, eventually being honorably discharged at the rank of Captain.
Bill has fought for justice his entire career, which began as an Assistant District Attorney and later as First Assistant District Attorney of El Paso. In his eleven years as a prosecutor, he tried over 100 felony jury trials, including 30 homicides. He also served on the State Ethics Commission, where he worked for greater integrity in Texas government. In 1986, Bill was appointed to the 34th District Court, where he has been re-elected many times. As a District Judge, he has tried over 500 felony and civil jury trials, including capital murder cases. He was also appointed Presiding Judge of the Sixth Judicial Region of Texas by former Governor Ann Richards. For 6 years, he was presiding judge of the El Paso Council of Judges.
Judge Bill Moody’s commitment to fairness and impartiality is legendary. State Senator Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso called Judge Moody, “very highly regarded and respected. He works well with a wide cross-section of the bar.”
In addition to his dedication to justice, Bill has a keen interest in history and has assisted in producing historical novels. He and his wife of thirty-four years have four children and are members of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in El Paso where Judge Moody has been a lector for nearly 20 years.
Judge Bill Moody is running for Texas Supreme Court, Place 5. Judge Moody was one of our most successful statewide candidates in 2006, earning more votes than any other Democrat on the ballot. In the twenty-three years he has worked as a judge, he has tried over five hundred jury trials. Over his long and distinguished career, he has earned a reputation for hard work and a commitment to ensuring justice in Texas’ courts.
The same cannot be said for his opponent, Justice Paul Green. First elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 2004, Green’s absence from the Court’s opinion-making process is a perfect example for why we need fresh ideas and committed public servants on Texas’ highest court.
Of 144 rulings issued in fiscal year 2007, Justice Paul Green issued an opinion in only four cases. That’s right – Paul Green issued a ruling in less than 3% of cases in which the Texas Supreme Court took action, the fewest of any Justice on the Court. (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
Green is the symptom of a much larger problem. An analysis by Texas Watch in February 2008 showed that it took the Texas Supreme Court an average of 852 days to dispose of a case – approximately 2.3 years. Even after oral arguments were finished, it would take the Justices on the Court over a year to write an opinion on the case they heard. (Source: Texas Watch) As Texas Watch argued in their report:
Cases in which a consumer has won at the lower appellate level comprise the majority of cases the Court accepts for review. By keeping these cases on hold for inordinate amounts of time, the Court makes it more likely that injured patients will go without recompense for lost wages and medical expenses, individuals will be forced to declare bankruptcy, and matters involving children are delayed. (Source: Texas Watch)
The snail’s pace of Paul Green and the entirely Republican Texas Supreme Court is harmful to Texans looking to get their fair day in court. Yet, while Green has shown little concern for swift justice, he has been expedient in charging Texas taxpayers for his travel expenses.
Over the course of three years, Justice Paul Green filed for mileage reimbursements for 272 separate trips between Austin, where he lives in an Austin apartment, and San Antonio, his home town. The 272 trips totaled over $16,000 in travel expenses. (Source: The Houston Chronicle)
This November, Texans will have a chance to change the Texas Supreme Court. The contrast between Bill Moody’s extensive experience and Green’s slow-paced and controversial behavior on the bench could not be any clearer. Texans who believe hard work and fairness should be the hallmark of a Texas Supreme Court justice should support Moody this November.
Two Roads to the Texas Supreme Court
On November 2, Texas will decide whether Judge Bill Moody or Justice Paul Green will serve on the Texas Supreme Court for the next six years. Moody, a trial judge for twenty-three years, opposed to Green’s sixteen years as an appellate judge is just the first difference. As trial lawyers, Green worked in his father’s law firm, in civil litigation, while Moody prosecuted criminals and represented crime victims for eleven years as an Assistant District Attorney. As a trial judge, Moody has tried over 500 jury trials and disposed of over 15,000 civil and criminal cases, while Green has authored as few as two cases for an entire year. As a trial judge, Moody works with jurors, witnesses, attorneys, crime victims, plaintiffs and defendants every day assuring that everyone gets an opportunity to be heard, is treated respectfully, and has the law applied fairly. Green deals with a very select group of attorneys and law firms that argue before the Supreme Court, several who have contributed thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
Judge Moody in 2006 ran for the Texas Supreme Court and received forty-five percent of the vote compared to his opponents fifty-one percent, the closest any Democrat has come to wining any statewide office in many years. Judge Moody chose to take his campaign directly to the people and walked 1,027 miles from El Paso to Louisiana. Judge Moody spent forty-four days and nights talking to Texans from every walk of life and carefully listening to their concerns. He met Texans where they work and live: in barbershops and beauty parlors, at gas stations and convenience stores, at fire and police stations, in schools and churches, at city halls and county courthouses, in homes, parks, playgrounds and small businesses. Justice Green in stark contrast spent much of his campaign time talking to the political elite, CEO’s, large civil defense firms and the country club set. Judge Moody believes firmly in the jury system and the right to a jury trial by all Texans. Justice Green spends much of his judicial time reversing jury verdicts. There is a clear choice for Supreme Court Justice, Place 5 come November 2. Judge Moody has earned your vote.