District Attorney Jarvis Parsons Receives Statewide Award

Press Release: September 21, 2023

Elected District Attorney Jarvis Parsons was honored this week with the C. Chris Marshall Award in recognition of his dedication in training prosecutors around the State of Texas. The award is named in honor of C. Chris Marshall, a Tarrant County prosecutor who was a statewide leader in appellate law that had a passion for training prosecutors.

This award is presented by the Texas District & County Attorneys Association (TDCAA) each year to the most distinguished trainers of law and ethics in the state of Texas. TDCAA is Texas’ premier prosecutor organization that includes over 3,500 prosecutors, investigators, and staff across the state.

Parsons’ award recognizes his work in training new prosecutors at TDCAA’s Trial Skills Course. This course is held twice a year and trains new prosecutors from across the state on the fundamentals of prosecution. In addition to his work at TDCAA’s Trial Skills Course, Parsons has spoken at numerous conferences within the State on diverse topics including domestic violence, opening statements, admitting evidence in criminal cases, and combatting cognitive bias that works against prosecutors. In addition to his work within Texas, Jarvis has also been a highly sought-after speaker at numerous prosecutors conferences across the country, including in Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, New York, Maine, Idaho, and Washington D.C.

Locally, Jarvis Parsons and his office train Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners across the state multiple times a year in a cooperative agreement with Texas A&M University’s School of Nursing. This course teaches nursing staff that work directly with victims of violent crime about courtroom testimony and strategies in responding to cross-examination.

Jarvis Parsons serves on Governor Abbott’s Sexual Assault Survivors Task Force and the Texas Forensic Science Commission. The Sexual Assault Survivors Task Force was established to create best practices and protocols that address prevention, investigation and prosecution of sexual assault experienced by children and adults in Texas. The Forensic Science Commission’s pro-vides oversight over Texas crime laboratories and other entities conducting forensic analyses for use in criminal proceedings and provides procedures, policies, and practices to improve the quality of forensic analyses conducted in Texas. Jarvis was appoint-ed by Governor Abbott to the Sexual Assault Task Force in 2019 and to the Forensic Science Commission in 2016.

In the Brazos Valley, Jarvis serves on the board of the Scotty’s House Child Advocacy Center and the Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC). Parsons has been married to his wife Amiee for 22 years and they have one daughter, Erin.