Professor Jeff Blackburn

Adjunct Professor of Law Director, Innocence Project, 2005.

Jeff Blackburn is a trial lawyer from Amarillo. He handles criminal and civil rights cases all over the state.

He has been practicing law since 1983. He is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas State Bar.

In 2009, he represented the family of Tim Cole, a young man falsely accused of rape who died in prison, and got the first posthumous exoneration in Texas history. From 2001 until 2005, he represented 38 people falsely convicted in the infamous Tulia drug bust, eventually obtaining full pardons and civil damages. He is the founder of and chief counsel to the Innocence Project of Texas.

He was named "Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year" by the State Bar of Texas for 2002-2003. He has received the Frank Scurlock Award from the State Bar of Texas for pro-bono work, the Maury Maverick Award, and the Henry B. Gonzalez Civil Rights Award.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Texas State Bar Committee on Legal Services for the Poor in Criminal Matters.

Degrees

B.S. University of Alabama, 1980

J.D. University of Houston, 1986

Areas of interest

Civil Rights Law