The University of Houston Law Center Faculty

Sandra Guerra Thompson

Newell H. Blakely Chair

713.743.2134

B.A., Yale University; J.D., Yale University

Sandra Guerra Thompson is the Newell H. Blakely Professor of Law and the former Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center.  She has taught and published in the areas of criminal law and evidence for 36 years and has received two university-wide teaching excellence awards.

In 1996, she became the first Latina tenured law professor in the State of Texas and the fourth in the nation. In 2009, she was recognized by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the Top 25 Women of Vision.  She received the 2020 Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Education in the Community Award from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.  She received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023 from the Hispanic Bar Association of Houston.

For many years, Professor Guerra Thompson has done hands-on community work to promote legal reform and social change.  In 2009, Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed her as the representative of the Texas public law schools on the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, and the panel’s recommendations to the legislature resulted in numerous important legislative reforms to prevent wrongful convictions.

In 2012, Houston Mayor Annise Parker appointed Professor Guerra Thompson as a founding member of the Board of Directors of the city’s newly created independent crime lab, the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC).  The HFSC replaced the scandal-ridden HPD Crime Lab and would later be considered as the best crime lab in the country for its extraordinary quality control program.  Drawing on her experience with HFSC, she wrote a book entitled Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions through Independent Forensic Laboratories (Carolina Academic Press 2015).

In 2020, she was appointed by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal as Deputy Monitor for the federal consent decree in ODonnell v. Harris County, which has transformed Harris County’s misdemeanor bail system.  She previously also served as the Monitor for the settlement in Lomas v. Harris County, which ensured the integrity of the criminal charging process.

Since 1999, Professor Guerra Thompson has been an elected member of the American Law Institute, and she served on the ALI’s Model Penal Code sentencing reform project.

She started her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney's Office from 1988-1990 where she handled trials and appeals. She is a proud native of Laredo, Texas, where she attended public schools.

COURSES:
Criminal Law
Evidence
Hot Topics in Criminal Law and Procedure
Criminal Evidence