STREET HARRIS COUNTY FOR
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Judge Morris L. Overstreet is a decorated legal professional and a former member of the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals – the state’s highest criminal appellate court. In that capacity, Judge Overstreet became the first African- American elected to a statewide office in the history of the State of Texas. He was twice elected to serve on the state’s highest criminal appellate court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, from 1990 to 1998. In that role he authored and delivered more than 500 decisions.
Before taking the bench, Judge Overstreet served for five years as a prosecutor in the 47th Judicial District at the District Attorney’s Office in Amarillo, where he advanced to First Assistant District Attorney. He also presided over the Potter County Court at Law Number 1 in Amarillo for four years. In his thousands of jury and non-jury trials Judge Overstreet has never had a criminal conviction reversed on appeal because of any error committed by him. Judge Overstreet is a life member of the National Bar Association and is also a member of the American Bar Association. He has also served as a former Chair of the
Judicial Council Division and is currently President of the Auxiliary to the National Medical Association. From August 1999 – May 2000, Judge Overstreet served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at his alma mater, Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. In September 2002, Judge Overstreet returned to Texas Southern University, where he served as the Director of the Legal Clinic and Professor of Evidence and Criminal Procedure for four years.
Judge Overstreet is a member of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. He is also a life member of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, and is also a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. He is a frequent lecturer and public speaker and has taught continuing legal educational classes statewide for Justices of the Peace, Constitutional County Judges, municipal court judges, local Bar Associations, the State Bar of Texas Advance Criminal Law Seminar, and the National Bar Association.
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