NACDL - National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Charles W. Tessmer
NACDL Past Presidents, Past President, 1972-73 (In Memoriam)
July 24, 2026
Charles William Tessmer was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up above his aunt and uncle's furniture store on Elm Street after his father's early death. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and, after enlisting in the Army at the outset of World War II, served in England as a lieutenant with military intelligence. It was while attending court sessions at the Old Bailey in London that he first grew fascinated with the law. He returned home, earned his B.A. from Southern Methodist University in 1948, and received his LL.B. from the SMU School of Law in 1949.
Tessmer opened his own Dallas practice immediately after passing the bar and, over more than fifty years at the criminal defense bar, built a reputation as one of the most skilled trial and appellate lawyers in the country. He tried more than 175 death penalty cases, and not one of his clients was executed. He argued cases before the United States Supreme Court and successfully reversed two convictions there, and appeared as counsel of record in more than 160 published appellate opinions. In 1968, he authored Criminal Trial Strategy, still regarded as a foundational text in the field, and went on to write The Tessmer Trial Book and The Price of Innocence.
A charter member of NACDL, Tessmer served as the organization's president in 1972–73 — the only Dallas attorney ever to hold that position — and was also a charter member and board member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1988. Though he was sometimes said to lack the national profile of contemporaries like F. Lee Bailey or Richard "Racehorse" Haynes — having declined the chance to represent Jack Ruby early in his career — those who watched him work over the decades often considered him the best trial lawyer of them all. When he died, the Dallas Morning News headlined his obituary with the observation that he "understood what criminal defense is about."
Charles W. Tessmer died July 3, 2003, at age 83. He was survived by his wife, Norma Davis Tessmer, his two daughters, and a grandson. Memorial gifts in his honor were directed to the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Education Institute.
