Michelle Slaughter

Michelle Slaughter (born 1978) is a former Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Education

Slaughter received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Houston and her Juris Doctor from the University of Houston Law Center in 2004.

Legal career

Upon graduating law school, she clerked with Haynes and Boone. Before taking the bench she was a managing member at Slaughter & Hammock and from 2005 to 2010 practiced at Locke Lord.

State judicial service

Slaughter campaigned to be a Judge for the 405th District Court of Galveston County and took office in 2013. In 2015, she was cleared of any wrongdoing by a judicial panel after concern was raised over personal Facebook posts regarding a trial she was overseeing.

In March 2018, she won the Republican primary to be a Judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She went on to win the general election, receiving 4,760,576 votes or 74% of the vote. Her term on the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals began on January 1, 2019

In 2024, Slaughter was defeated in the Republican primary by attorney Lee Finley.

Personal life

Slaughter is a Republican.