The misunderstandings on this point are rampant all over social media. Now that the verdict went the way I and many other wanted, people are trying to retroactively make this decision some nth-dimensional chess move by the judge to “make the conviction airtight.” But really it’s just a somewhat unique legal question…

Yes I know. And I’m saying it wasn’t a screwup because “manslaughter” is covered by a murder charge. A jury can always choose to convict for a lesser included offense but can’t choose to convict for a higher offense than the one charged, so DAs are always incentivized to charge the highest crime that still plausibly…

Did you screenshot my comment, dismiss it, then reply to yourself so you could both ignore the remainder of my comment, prevent other people from seeing it, and avoid notifying me that you’d replied?

What are you getting out of this? Why is it important to you that I be both wrong and motivated by malice here?

What are you getting out of this? Why is it important to you that I be both wrong and motivated by malice here?

Honestly I thought manslaughter was probably the charge the DA was going for the whole time and just overcharged for murder expecting the jury to bite at the lesser included. I was genuinely not sure how a jury could find the requisite intent for murder (though admittedly I don’t know TX law, so if recklessness is…

Your comment implies you were mad at her because you wanted her to do it wrong? Since you admit that giving the instruction was “doing it right” I’m confused what you wanted from the judge other than “doing it right.”

It really wasn’t a huge discretionary call for the trial judge. The defense team had a defense, and they proved it up enough that the judge had to instruct the jury on all of those defenses. If she hadn’t it would have been an obvious way to attack any verdict on appeal. This wasn’t a decision based on her read of the…

I’m on board with a limited castle doctrine that limits your “duty to retreat.” For instance, I’d be ok with a rebuttable presumption that when you’re in your own home retreat would be impractical or impossible. But I’m still not in favor of the way some of these doctrines operate, which lower the bar for use of…

It’s not a DA screwup because they know that manslaughter is a lesser included. They didn’t need to charge her with murder and manslaughter because murder covers manslaughter.

I’m not “in favor of her decision.” I’m saying that it seems likely her hands were somewhat tied. The alternative is to not instruct the jury about a basic element of the defendant’s defense. You, me, the judge and the jury could all agree that the castle doctrine doesn’t apply given the facts here. But if the…

The judge isn’t trying to do anything based on the evidence. The judge is obligated to instruct the jury on ALL the possible verdicts they could give based on the charges. That includes what are called “lesser included offenses.” For instance, “discharging a firearm in an unsafe manner” might be a lesser included of…

I don’t think the judge made the wrong decision here. Their hands were tied by a shitty law that shouldn’t exist. But given the defendant’s defense, not instructing the jury on the fact that they maybe kinda could apply the castle doctrine would have denied the defendant her right to have the jury instructed on all…

LOTS of legal misinterpretations both in the article and comments. I agree that a jury actually applying the castle doctrine here offends my common sense. But it seems like it would be error not to at least instruct them on it.

The judge isn’t trying to do anything based on the evidence. The judge is obligated to instruct the jury on ALL the possible verdicts they could give based on the charges. That includes what are called “lesser included offenses.” For instance, “discharging a firearm in an unsafe manner” might be a lesser included of…

A judge is required to give instructions on what are called “lesser included offenses,” because a jury is well within its rights to say “I don’t think you got her for murder but you did get her for manslaughter.” Failing to advise them of their right to do so, and the circumstances under which they’re allowed to do so,…

Whether to give a particular jury instruction is almost always a question before any trial court judge. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the trial court judge has carte blanche to give or not give whatever instructions he or she wants. If it’s a murder case, he or she needs to give the murder intruction.

As much as I fucking hate to see it, I don’t know that this was the wrong legal call. If the defense is mistake of fact, the only issue is whether the jury believes that she believed she was in her apartment. Even if the jury thinks her belief was unreasonable, so long as they think she did actually believe it it…

As someone who has had this app for years and paid for it, it sounds like the subscription adds features, while the base app retains all the features I already paid for. So not sure what you’re getting up in arms about there.

The upper body room certainly matters, but as someone with wider shoulders than hips I’ve almost always felt this was way overvalued compared to how often i get bumped by people in the aisle. I prefer the benefit of a wall to lean against so I can twist my upper body very slightly perpendicular. But I recognize this…