William Lee Hon is a 1984 Graduate of Livingston High School.
Hon Elected President of the Texas District and County Attorney's Association, LIVINGSTON, September 27, 2010 - On Wednesday, September 22, 2010, Polk County Criminal District Attorney William Lee Hon was elected President-Elect of the Texas District and County Attorney's Association (TDCAA) at the 2010 TDCAA annual meeting held at South Padre Island. Hon previously served on the TDCAA Board of Directors as the director of Region 5 which covers 27 Southeast Texas Counties. Hon was nominated for the position of President-Elect by the association's nominations committee and was elected at the annual officers election. Pursuant to TDCAA bylaws, Hon will serve for one year as President-Elect and then become President of the association beginning January 1, 2012. Hon will follow 39th Judicial District Attorney Michael Fouts as TDCAA President. Fouts, the current President-Elect takes office on January 1, 2011. Also elected to board positions at the annual meeting were Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, Secretary-Treasurer, Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Susan Reed, Criminal District Attorney at Large and El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal, County Attorney at Large.
The Texas District and County Attorney's Association is the largest organization of its kind in the United States. It is comprised of nearly 6000 members including elected district and county attorneys, assistant prosecutors, investigators and key personnel. Its mission is to promote the improvement of prosecution and government representation in Texas. It accomplishes this by providing educational and technical assistance to prosecutors and their staffs, by providing educational and technical assistance to the law enforcement community, and by serving as a resource in criminal law and government representation matters.
TDCAA was formed in 1905 as a loose knit group of Texas prosecutors who met in conjunction with the Attorney General's Annual Law Enforcement Conference. In 1970, Harris County District Attorney Carol Vance obtained federal LEAA grant funding to establish a prosecutor training organization. In 1971, the Texas District and County Attorney's Association was formally organized as a non-profit corporation whose purpose was to train and offer technical assistance to prosecutors.
Hon has served as Polk County Criminal District Attorney since January, 2007. He previously served as a felony assistant prosecutor for former District Attorney John Holleman from 1996 until taking office. Hon has served on the TDCAA Legislative Committee since 2003 and was instrumental in obtaining the passage of HB 872 (Otto) by the 80th Texas Legislature, a bill enhancing the punishment for the offense of Tampering With Evidence where the evidence tampered with was a human corpse. That bill was inspired by the 2003 murder of 4 year old Anthony Boone in Polk County. Hon has instructed other prosecutors on the prosecution of capital murder cases and has presented lectures to the Texas District and County Attorney's Association, the Oklahoma District Attorney's Counsel, and the Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation (AGACL). In 2003, he was awarded the AGACL Board of Directors' Trial Advocacy Award for Excellence in the Litigation of Capital Cases at the AGACL annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Most recently, he served as a faculty advisor at the TDCAA Advanced Trial Advocacy course held in August at Baylor University Law School in Waco.
Hon is a 1984 graduate of Livingston High School. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice in 1987 from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, and his Juris Doctor in 1990 from the University of Mississippi School of Law.
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