Random Monday Morning Thoughts

The most outrageous home run moving sculpture ever, named "Homer", debuted in Miami a decade ago. It was taken out in 2018 and re-appeared outside the stadium in 2020. 

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•  Let me spend a second on a story which broke on Friday, took a twist on Sunday, and for which one man needs to lose his job. 
• The story on Friday afternoon was this. A lady was in Starr County was sitting in jail on $500,000 charge for "murder." Specifically, the Sheriff said the charge was that she had caused the death of an individual due to to a "self-induced abortion." Yep, you read that right. 
  
  
  
• But that's all we knew. The story was reported locally by "MyRGVnews.com" and picked up by the AP, New York Times, and Washington Post. But what jumped out at me was that she had been indicted. This wasn't a simple arrest by some rogue cop. Nope, the DA had taken the case before a grand jury and obtained an indictment. 
• But how was that possible? Ok, we've all heard that the "Bounty Bill" had basically made abortion illegal in Texas, but she could not have been charged with that. That law allowed for her to be sued in civil court for $10,000 by any private individual, but even that over-the-top law imposed no criminal penalties. The DA could not have obtained an indictment under that law. 
• So let's go back to the Texas murder statute in the Penal Code. Does that work somehow? The most basic part says you can't intentionally "cause the death of an individual."
  
  
  
• And look at the definition of "Individual":
  
  
  
• So was that it? Had she been indicted under that law? Nope, that's not legally possible. There is an exception a little bit further down in statute which exempts abortion from the murder statute. Subsection one clearly prevents prosecution. (This particular statute has been on the books since 2003.)
  
  
  
• So what happened? How she was indicted? Well we got this press release on Sunday afternoon by the DA:
  
  
  
• This cluster is outrageous. And his attempt to brand himself as the good guy is deceitful and shameful. He says he will use his "prosecutorial discretion" today and dismiss the case because "in reviewing the applicable law" it is "clear" that she "cannot and should not be prosecuted."  Hey, buddy: It was your office that went to the grand jury, which you control, and got them to indict her!  The grand jury doesn't have a word processor in the room. You typed it up in the words you wanted and persuaded them to vote in favor of charging her with a First Degree Felony of Murder in district court. But now you act like some type of hero in taking the high road because you have "reviewed" everything and decided it was a mistake? No. You did this. You caused this.  
• So how could such a mistake be made? I think there are two options:
• The first, an most probable option, is that the DA is an idiot. He had heard about "abortion now being illegal" in Texas and just assumed that the criminal law had changed in addition to the Bounty Bill. Does that sound next to impossible? It shouldn't. Some prosecutors, and some lawyers, are just that dumb. 
  
  
  
• The other option, which is a remote long shot, is that we had a rouge grand jury. That is, the group, which probably meets every week or so, heard about the "illegal abortion" and they decided on their own to indict her even though the DA begged them not to because the law didn't allow it. (You hear about that happening once in a blue moon, but it is incredibly rare.)  But here's the problem.  If that is what went down, the DA has the "prosecutorial discretion" to dismiss the indictment the second the grand jury left the courthouse. But he didn't. Instead, he allowed for a warrant to be issued for her arrest because of the indictment and allowed the woman to sit in jail for 48 hours before she paid a fortune to a bondsman to get out of jail.  All of this falls on the lap of the DA. He needs to be torched today.  

  

  Starr County Courthouse

  
  
• If I'm that lady, I'd sue the DA into oblivion.  The Supreme Court basically cleared the way last week for prosecutors to be sued when there is a clear constitutional violation, and it doesn't get any clearer than what just went down in Starr County.  And she has damages. She sat in jail and had her picture posted nationwide -- hell, worldwide -- for everyone to ridicule her. 
• Also, the State Bar needs to sanction the DA. Hard. I'd vote to disbar him (but I'll admit I'm probably in the minority on that.) 
• The press is going to be all over his office this morning asking for an explanation.  He must have had a bad weekend to issue the press release on a Sunday, and it's about to get worse. Good. 
• It should be noted that the Bounty Bill is also very responsible for this woman's hardship as well.  Because of it, she couldn't find a doctor to obtain an abortion and decided to take it upon herself. As expected, she botched it, and had to go to the hospital. From there, her world caved in on her even more. (How and why the hospital "reported it" to the Sheriff's Office is another aspect of the case that needs to be investigated.)
• The clubhouse at The Cliffs at Possum Kingdom burned down Saturday night. (Credit Bud Kennedy.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• NFL quarterback Dwayne Haskins was killed over the weekend when he was struck by a dump truck in Fort Lauderdale at 6:00 in the morning on Saturday. Less than five hours later, former Cowboys "draft guru" was asked about it as he was appearing on a radio show. He shouldn't have said anything. Audio.  (Her also questioned his "work habits" while at Ohio State. Amazing.)
  
  
  
• Someone allegedly got liquored up in Dallas on Friday night, and Fox4Terry somehow snuck back there and grabbed a few pics. 
  
  
  
• On Friday, the government failed to get a conviction of the guys who allegedly planned to kidnap the Michigan governor. I really don't know anything about the facts of the case, but someone emailed me once and told me the case was similar to what I've ranted about in the years after 9/11: FBI agents finding people online and baiting them into a plan to do a crime when they don't have the ability or inclination to do it on their own. I don't know if that's what happened here. 
  
  
  
• And the news gets buried on Friday that Junior was plotting to overthrow the election after the election but even before Biden was declared the winner.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trump had a rally this weekend in North Carolina. 
• The guy who got in trouble for his orgies and cocaine comment was there. Video.
  
  
  
• Random photo from the rally.
  
  
  
• Top school superintendent salaries in Texas:
  
  
  
• Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin had an odd recruiting (#ComeToTheSip) tweet this weekend, and it made you wonder if there were any black girls in Oxford, Mississippi.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Wichita Falls tornado in 1979 will always stick with me. It was just so wide. And it was the last time, due to my parents demands later that night, that I was in an underground storm cellar  when everyone was on guard in Wise County thinking it might happen here.