Wayne Patrick "Pat" Priest (November 1940 – October 12, 2018) was a San Antonio, Texas state court judge who has presided over a number of nationally and regionally important cases.
[3] DeLay's conviction was overturned by the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals on September 19, 2013, which noted in part that "the jury on two occasions had asked trial Judge Pat Priest whether the $190,000 was 'illegal at the start of the transaction' or 'procured by illegal means originally,'" and that "the judge never answered the jurors' questions".
[5] In 2015, Priest presided over the exoneration hearing of the "San Antonio Four", four women collectively accused and convicted of child molestation in 1994.
[6][7] Priest ultimately ruled that the women should be given a new trial,[8] although he "refused to declare their 'actual innocence'".
[7] The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals exonerated them, asserting in plain but forceful language that they did not sexually assault anyone in 1994, for which they had spent years in prison.