The Dallas County District Attorney is the elected district attorney

District attorney

In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

 (DA) of Dallas County, Texas

Dallas County, Texas

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

.The office prosecutes violations and offenses of Texas state law.(Federal law

Federal law

Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join together in a federation, surrendering their individual sovereignty and many powers to the central government while...

 violations are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in Dallas, Texas with divisions in Fort Worth, Amarillo, Abilene, Lubbock, San Angelo...

 ). The office is notable for arguing Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...

 and prosecuting Jack Ruby

Jack Ruby

Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...

. Also, it has currently partnered with the Innocence Project of Texas

Innocence Project of Texas

-Organization:The Innocence Project of Texas was founded in 2007 by the directors of several independent actual innocence organizations in the State of Texas. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions, and it is staffed by students, volunteers, dedicated...

 to review cases that might have been wrongfully convicted, which has been successful. This partnership has received national attention and was forged by the current DA, Craig Watkins

Craig Watkins

Craig Watkins is currently the district attorney for the Dallas County, Texas, USA. He became the first African American district attorney in Texas when he was elected in 2006....

, the first Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 district attorney in Dallas County since Henry Wade

Henry Wade

Henry Menasco Wade , was a Texas lawyer who participated in two of the most notable U.S. court cases of the 20th century, the prosecution of Jack Ruby for killing Lee Harvey Oswald and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade...

.