David Newell (Texas judge)

David Christopher Newell (born June 9, 1971) is an American judge, who serves on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the court of last resort in criminal cases within Texas. A resident of Houston, Newell was elected to the court in 2014 to succeed the retiring Place 9 Judge Cathy Cochran. He is not related to the actor who played Mr. McFeely on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Newell graduated from the University of Houston in 1993, and from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin in 1996. Prior to his judgeship, Newell was an assistant prosecutor in the district attorney's office in Harris County, with a specialization in appeals. He also lectured and wrote on matters pertaining to criminal appellate law and was involved with the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. Newell argued cases before the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court. Before the United States Supreme Court, he successfully briefed the deciding issue in the 2013 Fifth Amendment case Salinas v. Texas.

In the Republican primary election held on March 4, 2014, Newell defeated his intra-party challenger, William Charles "Bud" Kirkendall (born 1949), a judge since 2004 of the 25th Judicial District and a former district attorney from Seguin in Guadalupe County, east of San Antonio, who also graduated from the University of Texas Law School. Newell polled 571,850 votes (52.2 percent) to Judge Kirkendall's 523, 055 (47.8 percent). In the general election Newell received 2,929,963 votes (78.3 percent) against the nominees of the Libertarian and Green parties.

Elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals with Newell were Bert Richardson and Kevin Patrick Yeary, both of San Antonio. The six-year terms of all three judges expire on December 31, 2020.