AUSTIN, Texas — It was a long and painful journey that led Judge Julie Kocurek to testify before a Senate committee Monday.
"I knew immediately...that someone was trying to kill me for simply doing my job," Kocurek.
In November of 2015, an attacker gunned down Judge Kocurek in front of her own home.
"I told her goodbye, because I thought I would never see her again. I thought she was going to die,” said Will Kocurek, Julie’s son.
But after surviving the attack, Judge Kocurek returned to the bench and it was clear something had to be done to better protect Texas judges.
"There are serious deficiencies of the state's security posture, including a lack of court security best practices, training, and funding," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Texas Senate District 21.
According to a survey of Texas judges completed after the attack, around two-thirds said they had no security training in their courthouse and more than 30 percent of state judges were aware of a security threat in the past year.
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Now legislation filed by Zaffirini would aim to fix the problem, scrubbing judges' personal information from publicly-available records, establishing local court security committees and authorizing state troopers to provide security for threatened judges.
"Justice will prevail over violence,” said Judge Kocurek.
Monday, she testified in support of the bill.
"I realized that this was bigger than me,” she said.
A call to action to keep Texas judges out of harm's way.
The Judge Julie Kocurek Judicial and Courthouse Security Act, or Senate Bill 42, passed the Senate State Affairs Committee and now heads to the full Senate.