Judge Birmingham presided over a murder trial his first week on the job. It would be the first trial of approximately 150 he’s heard since, none of which have been overturned on appeal (Click here for his interactive Jury Trial Report). He is the former presiding Judge of the Criminal District Courts in Dallas County and was named Jurist of the Year by the Dallas Bar Association in 2024.

He loves trial work, having studied and practiced it both as a judge and a prosecutor for nearly 20 years. His trial experience as lead counsel includes Capital murder, Cold Cases, Sexual Assault, Child abuse, and Intoxication Manslaughter.

His experience in the Courtroom came at a time when the criminal justice system was confronted with the systemic flaws that caused Dallas County to lead the nation in exonerations. Judge Birmingham tried two cases in which DNA evidence exonerated two men, James Curtis Williams and Raymond Jackson, and revealed the true identity of the perpetrators, Marion Doll Sayles and Frederick Anderson. The Dallas County Exonerations have indelibly imprinted Judge Birmingham’s view of our Criminal Justice System. 

In addition to trying cases, Judge Birmingham loves to teach. Since 2007, he has taught over 80 hours of Continuing Legal Education to Judges, criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors and police officers locally and nationally. He is also a former member of the Texas Bar College because of his significant voluntary participation in legal education and service to the legal profession. He created the curriculum for two courses he teaches as an adjunct professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law: Circumstantial Evidence in Murder Trials and Evidentiary Mechanics. He recently created a casebook called “Evidentiary Mechanics” available through Harvard Law Library’s Opencasebook.org. Throughout his career, he has been asked to educate the public about various criminal cases involving the death penalty and death in police custody, and is a frequent commentator on the Law and Crime Network.

He created a documentary podcast called “A Murderous Design.”  The show looks at famous trials with North Texas Ties, and includes interviews with those directly involved. So far, he has documented the trials of Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson, Lee Harvey Oswald’s Assassin Jack Ruby, the Eyeball Killer Charles Albright, and the 1971 capital murder of 3 Texas Lawmen dubbed “The Trinity River Massacre.” His latest installment covered the trial of Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh, and has been downloaded over 100,000 times. In the Fall of 2017, he partnered with the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza to secure for public consumption the original case file on the Jack Ruby trial, and presented a case study on the trial for over 200 attendees that has amassed nearly half a million views on the Museum’s YouTube Channel. 

In addition to his regular judicial duties, Judge Birmingham has been involved with two Specialty Courts: AIM Court (2015 – 2021) and the Felony Domestic Violence Court (2016-2020). Though these two courts serve different offender populations, both provide creatively innovative long-term solutions to criminal behavior. 

In 2015, he partnered with then-Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk to create a unique second chance program called A.I.M. Court to address the problem of mass incarceration by offering an innovative curriculum to address the root causes of the offenders conduct. Once completed, the indictments are dismissed, and the DA will agree to an immediate expunction thereby allowing the participant to be free from a lifetime felony conviction. The program started small, but has grown and now includes approximately 60 participants, with more than 150 graduates: that’s 150 lives free from felony convictions, and over 2,500 years in prison time avoided.

From 2016-2020, Judge Birmingham presided over the Felony Domestic Violence Court. Created in 2014 by Judge Rick Magnis and Dr. Jill Johansson-Love, the Court is committed to protecting the victims of intimate partner domestic violence by eliminating abusive behavior patterns of offenders. In addition to working with prosecutors, public defenders, and the felony probation department, the Court also uniquely involves community stakeholders Genesis Women’s Shelter and The Family Place. Approximately 90 men have graduated the program since Judge Birmingham took it over in 2016. A study revealed that these graduates were significantly more likely to complete probation successfully and far less likely to be revoked for committing a new intimate partner domestic violence offense.

Judge Birmingham grew up in Carrollton, Texas, and is a graduate of R. L. Turner High school. As the Captain of the Baylor Men’s Tennis Team, he graduated as a student-athlete before attending and graduating from South Texas College of Law. Before joining the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office in 2002, he was an intern for Chief Justice Michael Schneider at the First District Court of Appeals in Houston, Texas. 

He met Carrie, the love of his life, on July 20, 1995, and they have been together ever since.  He enjoys playing tennis, basketball, guitar, and drums.