Page 107 - The First Fifty Years

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Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; Hon. Evelyn Keyes, Texas First Court of Appeals; and
Ruby Sondock, UHLC Class of 1962 and the first woman justice of the Texas Supreme
Court (Jan. 23, 2013) [hereinafter Decade 3 Oral History] (on file with Houston Law
Review).

Hired next by Governor George W. Bush as his criminal justice policy advisor,
Herasimchuk received appointment to the Court of Criminal Appeals when Bush was
succeeded by Governor Rick Perry in 2001. Anticipating, however, the difficulties of
another statewide vote to retain office the following year, the newly minted judge already
had made a prudential decision. “I had changed my name back to my maiden name (and
my husband had changed his name to my maiden name too), so that was a reasonable
ballot name and that’s pretty much [all it took].” Id.

87. “The distribution of the Texas Rules of Evidence Handbook and the signing
ceremony by Professor Blakely was the highlight of the year as we had worked so long
and so hard and had so many difficulties in getting the book published that we felt that
‘our baby’ was the most beautiful book the world had ever seen. All of the frustration was
forgotten when we saw the twinkle in Professor Blakely’s eyes as he held the first copy in
his hands as we popped a bottle (well, maybe quite a few bottles) of champagne in
celebration.” Questionnaire Response, Hon. Cathleen Cochran, Judge, Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals (Mar. 21, 2012) [hereinafter Cochran Questionnaire] (on file with
Houston Law Review).

As with many other HLR projects of the day, however, the institutional costs
were high. “We started off [my EIC tenure] over a year behind schedule because of the
Handbook. Now the Handbook has turned out to be wildly successful and cited by lots of
courts and lots of other law reviews, but at that time we were pretty concerned. You
know, number one was it ever going to get out and number two were we shooting
ourselves in the foot by putting out a book like this instead of focusing in on the individual
articles?” Oral History of Houston Law Review with Sidney Buchanan, Baker Botts
Professor of Law Emeritus; Hon. Cathleen Cochran, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals;
Claudia Frost, Partner, DLA Piper; and Robert Sergesketter, moderator, Senior Counsel,
Apache Corp. (Oct. 11, 2012) [hereinafter Decade 2 Oral History] (on file with Houston
Law Review).

88. “I went to law school with the hope of making some difference in the Texas
criminal justice system and I have never wavered from that goal. I met Professor Blakely
my first day of school as our Criminal Law professor, and I knew that I was on the right
track from that day.” Decade 2 Oral History at 11.

Major events in Judge Cochran’s professional life seem to have a consistent
meteorological dimension. “Serendipitously enough, the law school campus flooded on that
first day of school and the Capitol in Austin flooded on the first day of my investiture as a
judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, so I take that as an omen that torrential rain
measures my most momentous decisions.” Id.

89. Dedication: Newell H. Blakely, 30 HOUS. L. REV. xvii, xvii (1993). Blakely was
extolled for his “major role in drafting . . . the Texas Rules of [Evidence,] . . . writ[ing] two
of the original articles in the Handbook[,] and provid[ing] the inspiration for both the
original and the second edition.” See also Joyce & Hoffman, Boldly, supra, at 51–53
(“Newell Blakely’s Evidence”).

90. Dedication: Cathleen C. Herasimchuk, 30 HOUS. L. REV. xxi, xxi (1993).

91. Board Report (Nov. 1) 1990 (on file with Houston Law Review).

92. Dedication, supra note 90, at xxi.

93. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes (Apr. 25, 1991) (on file with Houston Law
Review).

94. Spock, V. (as in Vulcan), as First Officer in “Amok Time,” the second season
premiere of the 1960s TV series Star Trek (Sept. 15, 1967). And, of course, seemingly
forever thereafter.

95. See Joyce & Hoffman, Boldly, supra, at 44–46.