James "Jim" Bethke

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Personal Information

James “Jim” Bethke of Austin is the executive director of the Bexar County Managed Assigned Counsel Office. He is the former executive director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, Harris County Justice Administration, Harris County Pretrial Services, and Lubbock Private Defender Office and a former adjunct professor at Texas Tech University (TTU) School of Law. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas, U.S. Supreme Court Bar, and Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Additionally, he is a former board member of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal Advisory Committee, Indigent Defense Research Association, National Association of Public Defense Fund for Justice, Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, National Legal Aid & Defender Association, and the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense. He is the former presiding officer of the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, former consultant for ABA International Criminal Justice Consortium, and former member of the Governor's Criminal Justice Advisory Council. He served in the U.S. Army and U.S Army Reserves until 2005. Bethke received a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from The University of Texas (UT) at Tyler and Juris Doctor from TTU School of Law.