When Judge Elsa Alcala stepped down from the Court of Criminal Appeals at the end of 2018, the court presented her a pen custom-made by another Texas judge as a retirement gift.

Charles A. Stephens II, presiding judge of the Comal County Court at Law No. 2 in New Braunfels, fashioned Alcala’s pen partly out of mesquite wood with a cap made of dyed maple.   Using a laser-cut pen kit developed by a Nevada man, Stephens made a pen featuring a Texas Lone Star flag motif.