The Office of the State Prosecuting Attorney is a small, independent state agency that represents the people of Texas before the state’s highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals. The current staff includes The State Prosecuting Attorney and two assistants.
Stacey was appointed as the 15th State Prosecuting Attorney in December 2016 after serving as an Assistant State Prosecuting Attorney for approximately five years.
Stacey is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2001. After passing the Texas and Pennsylvania bar exams, Stacey began her career in the Postconviction Litigation Division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. She defended non-death-penalty state-court convictions in federal court.
Stacey joined the writ section of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ central staff in 2003. In that capacity, she delivered written analyses of claims for relief in Article 11.07 state applications for writs of habeas corpus, original applications for writs of habeas corpus, writs of mandamus, and writs of prohibition. She recommended the proper disposition of those applications to the Court. From September 2005 until October 2011, Stacey served as the permanent staff attorney to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Michael Keasler. As Judge Keasler’s staff attorney, Stacey was responsible for drafting proposed majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions, statements, and orders that involved a complex examination and analysis of federal constitutional, state constitutional, and statutory issues.
Stacey authored an opinion piece about the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health for the Texas Bar Journal in November 2022. Stacey M. Soule, Transforming the Judiciary: An Update from the Texas Judicial Mental Health Commission, 85 Tex. Bar Journal, 842-44 (Nov. 2022). Previously, Stacey co-authored an article with Judge Keasler for the Texas Bar Journal about the standard of review that applies to the admission of scientific evidence. Stacey M. Goldstein & Michael E. Keasler, Bad Science, Bad Law: Judging Science on Appeal in Texas Criminal Cases and Related Ethical Issues, 74 Tex. Bar Journal, 568-73 (July 2011).
Stacey is also the CLE Chair for the State Bar Criminal Justice Section Council.
Stacey has served as a speaker for the University of Texas Continuing Legal Education, the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, the Texas Municipal Courts Association, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigation Association.
Finally, in her off time, Stacey is a Hill County Region Porsche Club of America board member. She also enjoys being a high-performance driving instructor for various driving schools throughout Texas.
John hails from New Jersey, where he attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology. After earning a B.S. in Business and an M.S. in Business with a marketing concentration, John came to Texas to attend Baylor Law. After graduation, he joined the McLennan County District Attorney's office, where he handled all direct appeals as well as protective orders and other miscellaneous civil matters.
John has argued in front of the First, Sixth, and Tenth Courts of Appeals, as well as the Court of Criminal Appeals. He represented the State in a few notable cases, including Smith v. State, 286 S.W.3d 333 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009) (holding that a defendant is not entitled to a hearing on his motion for new trial for ineffective assistance unless he alleges facts that show reasonable grounds to believe that he could prevail under both prongs under Strickland), and Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010) (overruling Clewis).
Emily grew up in North Texas and obtained her bachelor's degree in English at Rice. She attended law school at the University of Texas and while in Austin, worked as a law clerk for the Travis County District Attorney's Office. After law school, she clerked for the Chief Justice of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston. In 2002, she joined the Collin County District Attorney's Office, where she served as an appellate prosecutor for fourteen years. She has written a number of articles for the Texas Prosecutor magazine and is board certified in Criminal Appellate Law. She is also active on the State Bar's Criminal Pattern Jury Charge Committee. She, her husband, and children enjoy traveling and sightseeing in Texas.
Lisa was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned a degree in Political Science from Baylor University and a law degree from Baylor Law School. She served as an Assistant District Attorney in Tarrant County for four years before moving to Austin to work for thirteen years as a staff attorney at the Court of Criminal Appeals. She became an Assistant State Prosecuting Attorney in 2005, and was appointed State Prosecuting Attorney in December of 2010. Lisa retired in December 2016.
Lisa is a member of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association where she has served on the Publications and Appellate Advisory Committees. She frequently speaks on criminal law topics around the state and was the Course Director for the 2014 State Bar of Texas Advanced Criminal Law Course. She currently serves on the council of the State Bar Criminal Justice Section.
Lisa is a volunteer driver for Meals on Wheels.
Jeff Van Horn was raised in Caldwell County, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in psychology in 1969. Van Horn received his J.D. degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1973. He was admitted to the Texas Bar that same year and, prior to his work as a prosecutor, was engaged in private practice in Jasper and Luling.
He served as Criminal District Attorney of Caldwell County from 1981 to 1990, after serving as Assistant District Attorney for Caldwell and Comal Counties and as Justice of the Peace for Precinct 2 of Caldwell County.
He has served as a Director of the Texas District & County Attorneys Association, as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee to Revise the Code of Criminal Procedure, and as President of the Caldwell County Bar Association. He was an organizer of the Caldwell County Crimestoppers program, an organizer of the Lockhart Against Drugs program, and the Director of the Hays-Blanco-Caldwell Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse.
Van Horn joined the office as an Assistant State Prosecuting Attorney in 1991 and was appointed as State Prosecuting Attorney in 2007 through his retirement in December 2010. That same year, he was honored by the Criminal Justice Division of the State Bar of Texas as the Texas Prosecutor of the Year.
Van Horn has had a number of notable successes while representing the State before the Court of Criminal Appeals. In Standefer v. State, 59 S.W.3d 177 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001), the Court clarified the law relating to the definition and propriety of commitment questions during voir dire examination, and in Hernandez v. State, 988 S.W.2d 770 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999), the Court abandoned the Duffy standard in favor of the Strickland standard for evaluation of ineffective assistance of counsel claims at noncapital sentencing proceedings.
Van Horn led the successful effort in Ex parte Lewis, 219 S.W.3d 335 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007), to persuade the Court of Criminal Appeals to overrule its decision in Bauder v. State, 921 S.W.2d 696 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996). He was also instrumental in the Court's decision not to apply the Bauder principle to appellate reversals due to prosecutorial misconduct after full trial on the merits, in a pair of decisions, Ex parte Davis, 957 S.W.2d 9 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997), and Ex parte Mitchell, 977 S.W.2d 575 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997). And in Ex parte Edone, 740 S.W.2d 446 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987), the Court of Criminal Appeals overruled its previous decision in Ex parte Port and held that the violation of a court order requiring a witness to answer before a grand jury constitutes contempt of court.
Van Horn died May 6, 2023, in San Marcos, Texas. See Jeffrey L. Van Horn's Obituary.
Matthew was born in Victoria, Texas in 1955. He grew up in Lubbock and later attended Abilene Christian University, where he earned his B.S. in biology. Before law school, Matthew spent 3 years in medical school, where he notably helped his father deliver babies in Africa.
Matthew Paul graduated first in his class from the University of Texas School of Law in 1985. While at the law school, he was awarded the Chancellors Award, and the Carrington, Coleman, Sloman and Blumenthal Academic Excellence Award. He was also a faculty member at the College of Advanced Judicial Studies from 1995-1997 and presented papers and lectures before the State Bar of Texas' Advance Criminal Law Course, the Elected Prosecutors' Course, the Prosecutors' Appellate Conference, the Career Prosecutor Course, and the Annual Conference sponsored by the Texas District & County Attorneys Association. In 2005, the Texas District & County Attorneys Association presented to Matthew the C. Chris Marshall Distinguished Faculty Award for outstanding contributions to the education of Texas prosecutors.
He was an Assistant County Attorney in Kerrville from 1985 to 1987. He was an Assistant State Prosecuting Attorney in 1987, and was appointed as the State Prosecuting Attorney in 1996.
Matthew Paul passed away in March 2007. See The Texas Prosecutor, Remembering Matthew Paul, May-June 2007.
