Sniper Trial: It's Already Off Course

#State walking Taya through Chris' life story as documented in #AmericanSniper. Says she is "emotional" not "nervous" pic.twitter.com/4wWncPZ2D0
— Sebastian Robertson (@wfaasebastian) February 11, 2015

Hey, I'm no expert on a capital murder case and especially the insanity defense, but some basic rules apply in all criminal trials.  The State is obligated to prove that the defendant intentionally killed Chris Kyle. That's it. (Then it's up to the defense to raise any insanity defense.)

By all accounts of the opening statements, the defense isn't going to contest the murder -- they'll just say that the defendant was insane at the time he pulled the trigger.

So why is the wife being allowed to present this glowing and long presentation of Kyle's life? The only issue for this jury at this point is what happened at that shooting range that day. Yeah, some judges in Texas will give a little leeway and let you get into some background but not much. Whether Kyle was a good husband, good soldier, good father, etc. is technically irrelevant to the issue before the jury. That sounds harsh, but that's the law. And the opposite is also true: If Kyle had a history of dishonesty, it has no relevance to this case and the jury should not be allowed to hear it.

But you know what the prosecutors are doing?: Trying to let emotion trump facts.  They know the jury will be back there in that room in a couple of weeks deciding whether the defendant was insane. And they want them to remember Kyle's wife on the stand when they make that decision. Why? Her testimony has nothing to do with that issue, right? However, they want the jury to think, "He might have been insane, but I just can't vote that way and do that to that poor woman."  It's basically cheating which happens in almost every trial in one way or another.

Extra: We learned today that when Kyle and his buddy were on the way to the shooting range with the defendant, Kyle texted: "This dude is straight up nuts."

The New Most Interesting Man In The World: Oklahoma's Sir John Michael

News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

Love this guy. He lives in a school bus, lays around naked, works on cars, wears womens leggings over underwear, has a fur vest, twirls his pony tail, and has a walking stick. And sounds pretty dang articulate.

And I'm pretty sure if I talked with him he'd say, "You put on a suit and tie every day, get up early, and go to work? And I'm the crazy one? Have a seat, and let me enlighten you."

Side note: Is that reporter a "Hey, Now" or what?  What's she doing in Oklahoma City?

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Well I started out thinking Brian Williams would survive (and he kind of has) and then I backed off to the "not sure about that" position (which may be right because I'm not sure he comes back from his six month suspension.)   What a strange end to a strange lie. 
• And we've certainly learned that high-profile journalists are held to a different standard that high-profile politicians. 
• Jon Stewart announced his upcoming retirement last night, and it was as big of news as the Williams suspension. If you didn't understand The Daily Show, there may be quite a few things you don't understand in general.
• Everyone and their dog made a "Williams and Stewart just need to switch places" joke last night, but some were actually serious. I don't think you can do that on the national scale with ABC (at least not for 20 years), but I'm stunned a local station in a huge American city hasn't changed its approach. Laugh a little bit. Don't act like a deer in headlights when there is a technical problem. Add a legitimate funny observation after some crazy neighbor just appeared on packaged footage.
• Some outfit named The Institute of Medicine took a step yesterday towards making "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" a legitimate ailment. I've always questioned it but not as much of a buddy of mine who once said, "Heck, I get Chronic Fatigue Syndrome every day when I drive past a golf course on the way to work."
• The leader of Tarrant County Open Carry and their lap boy Rep. Jonathan Stickland received one of the funniest setbacks yesterday in their efforts to let every Texan walk around with an open handgun with no license. Read that link. It's short. 
• 660AM The Answer's Mark Davis in the Dallas Morning News today condemns 50 Shades of Grey but comes off sounding like the pastor in Footloose.  (You have to wade through a lot high-toneness to get to the sentence, but he finally says it is "pathetic" that those who see it will be liberal, liquored up, and too dumb to realize how vile the movie is and don't care.) 
• I've still got to do a post on Davis' appearance at Fellowship Church in Grapevine this summer after he was given the opportunity for some reason to speak in all three weekend services. (That's the church where the pastor just baptized 50 Shades.)  I'm still stunned they allowed Davis to mention from the pulpit that he had written a new book and that it was for sale in the church's bookstore in the lobby. That is, until I went into the bookstore and found it to be a profit center for Pastor Ed Young and his million books.
• Wait. Selling books in a church vs. a movie with seedy content?: Didn't Jesus get angry at the money-changers in the temple but showed compassion to the the lady caught in adultery?
• A Tarrant County jury awarded $16 million in a wrongful death suit after a lady was killed by a drunk driver who was sent home from her work at a nursing home. (Nerd legal point: I just had the weirdest flashback to studying a similar case, Otis Engineering, in Torts in 1984 in law school. Yet I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.) 
• As people entered the courthouse in Erath County this morning for the beginning of the "American Sniper Trial", the courthouse bells played the gospel hymn, "My hope is built on nothing less."  Hmmm. 

Walmart Fight In Texas: Tax Preparer vs. Head Butt "Lady"

LA PORTE, TX (KTRK) – A video is making its rounds on social media that shows a tax worker and a customer getting in a violent fight inside of a Walmart. “Take your poor (expletive) out this store,” the Jackson Hewitt tax worker could be heard saying to a customer on video. “Your momma is a (expletive).” The customer, Jessica Albitz, is then seen head butting tax worker Alice Keener. Keener can be seen fighting back. She takes Albitz by the head and starts banging it on a table nearby. Keener then slams Albitz to the floor. Albitz told Eyewitness News that the two got in a verbal spat a day earlier when Albitz and her husband went to the Jackson Hewitt tax booth inside Walmart to file their taxes. Albitz was not their tax worker, but was just clocking in to work. “She came in in a bad mood, and so she took it out on us,” said Albitz. “She was very rude to us.”

I think I speak for all of us when I say: You can get your taxes prepared at Walmart?

Anyone want to place a bet on how long it takes Jackson Hewitt to fire Keener? What a beating of a day. Get head butted. Get into a fight with a customer. And lose a job.  

Newsweek Just Hacked

Threatens to release confidential info:

Link.

Edit: Looks like Newsweek regained control in about 15 minutes.

Full Throttle Car Chase In LA Yesterday

Crashes. Driving in the wrong lane. Carjacking. Attempted carjacking. And an apparent shooting.

And LAPD had a hot opinion about the chase afterwards:

Breaking: American Hostage Held By Isis Was In Fact Killed By Jordanian Air Strikes

News wire.

Edit: The Pentagon announced in the afternoon she was killed by ISIS by an unknown means and not in air strike.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• My head exploded last night when I learned that the crazy pastor of FBC Dallas (1) has written a book called "Countdown to the Apocalypse: Why ISIS and Ebola Are Only the Beginning", (2) that Amazon describes him as a "prophecy insider", and (3) he was hawking the book on Hannity. I'm sure there is no one at his church who needs his assistance. 
• Here's another odd "Viewers Voice After Dark" filmed by Fox 4's Steve Eager from his home.  He comes across as if he is filming a ransom demand for someone he has in his basement. 
• The Chris Kyle murder case jury is composed of 10 women and 2 men. That normally has the potential for a surprise verdict but, then again, it's still Erath County. 
• I heard a rumor that yet another prosecutor quit the Tarrant County D.A.'s office yesterday, but it is not confirmed yet. 
• The shooting of the Montage County deputy by the Nocona cop is just flat weird. They had to have know each other, right? And we still don't know the name of the Nocona officer? 
• I blew past the OU vs. Iowa State men's game last night and the Oklahoma crowd was chanting  the name of former Baylor player Brittney Griner (and I don't think it was in a positive way). Someone clue me in. 
• Had an odd conversation about the old TV show Good Times at the courthouse the other day, and no one could remember how Janet Jackson's character came into the picture.  In a crazy coincidence, I stumbled on that exact moment over the weekend and was a little taken back to learn it was because she was a neighbor kid who was the victim of child abuse. 
• Whitney Houston's daughter will be taken off life support but the family wanted "to wait until Wednesday so she can die on the same date as her tragic mom." That's a little dark. 
• All the major sports networks are running with the story of Cowboy great Tony Dorsett suffering from CTE ("a degenerative condition many scientists say is caused by head trauma") after he mentioned that on The Ticket last week.  This is old news. One year ago D Magazine had a feature article entitled, Tony Dorsett Is Losing His Mind.
• Anyone remember that the legislature passed a No Texting While Driving bill in 2011 but it was vetoed by Rick Perry because it was too much big government?

Montague Sheriff's Deputy vs. The Press: Who Ya Got?

Post by FOX 4 News.

Tomorrowland

I always think about what life will be like 50 years from now.  If we could go back and transport someone from 1965 to the present, their mind would be blown. GPS. Flat screens. All the information in the world at your fingerprints -- without cords. Video chatting. Electric cars. And the list goes on.

So what will life be like in 2065?  Robots like this for home protection, law enforcement, or commerce? Drones everywhere? Every moment of your life recorded with some type of implant or glasses? Virtual reality glasses to experience anything or any place? Holograms in your living room? Driverless cars? (That last one is a forgone conclusion).

It's coming. And it seems to be coming fast.

Random Education News

Story.

Alabama Ignoring A Federal Court? Who Would Have Guessed?

With the issue of same-sex marriage pending before the Supreme Court, Alabama has been told by a federal court that it can't deny issuing marriage licenses in those cases.

Today, Alabama Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore said, in effect, "Oh, yes we can" has he ordered all relevant state judges to follow Alabama law (that has been struck down.)

Moore? Where have I heard of him. Oh . . .

For High School, That's Quite The Brawl

Climate Change Debate Is Over!!!

Was this sent because there's another snowstorm in the Northeast? Really?

Buddy, it's going to be in the upper 70s today in Wise County! You can't possibly need more scientific proof than that!

(I really don't have an opinion on global warning, but I do have an opinion on those who make their scientific conclusions by looking at today's forecast for America.)

Life And Death

Erath Co. DA Alan Nash tells potential jurors he will not ask for death penalty if there's a conviction. @FOX4
— Fil Alvarado (@FilAlvaradoFox4) February 9, 2015

Someone contradicted my claim a couple of weeks back that a single District Attorney can decide whether someone lives or dies. Sure, a jury must convict and assess the the death penalty when it is sought. But if the DA decides, in his eternal wisdom, not to seek it, a jury cannot give it.

Wow: Deputy Killed In Montague County May Have Been Shot By Nocona Police Officer

Story.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• No details yet, but a Montague County deputy was shot and killed last night.
• "WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of drivers on the road with alcohol in their systems has declined by nearly one-third since 2007 . . . ." Down 33% since 2007 is a shocking decline. 
• Another disaster in the Tarrant County DA's office: Letty Martinez, former chief child abuse prosecutor in Tarrant County, resigned on Friday after two decades of public service.
• And there is now a fake Tarrant County DA twitter account. There seems to be an underlying theme that the office is not friendly to prosecutors who have children. 
• I was stunned to learn the other day that DPS required all ten fingerprints to renew a driver's license. (A new legislator introduced a bill to stop the procedure.) No need. DPS says it will discontinue the process.
• The number of Iraqi civilian deaths during our invasion of that country are estimated to be anywhere from 150,000 to 1,000,000.  And I don't remember seeing a single one during American Sniper.
• The median starting salary for lawyers is $62,000 -- down 13% over the past six years. Surprising? Yet check out how the salaries of government lawyers have increased over the same time period. 
• I watched two episodes of what may be the greatest show I've seen in years this weekend: The BBC show Black Mirror.  Trust me! It's a bizarre modern day Twilight Zone. Start with The Entire History Of You (would you want to live in the world where everything you see, and your partner sees, is recorded from a device in your eyes?) and then go onto The National Anthem (would the Prime Minister be willing to do an unspeakable act on national TV to save a kidnapped member of the Royal Family?)
• Maybe I was tired, but the Better Call Saul better step up its game.
• An email Mrs. LL received four years ago from a stranger: "My wife is very upset that your husband posts daily pictures of young girls in bikinis. For what purpose? What do you think this does to the wives when they discover their husbands are reading your husband's blog when there are a million other blogs with excellent discussions without the photos? Are any of the pictures of you, or your daughters, or your girl friends, nieces, etc? Woman to woman, do you approve of what he's doing?"  I think that was written by a woman who forgot she was ghost writing the email.  
• The Grammys were on last night and I kept asking, "Who's that?"
• Let me backtrack from Friday: I'm not sure Brian Williams survives this. But if he's not gone by the end of the week, he'll make it. 
• Mrs. LL and I always watch movies with closed captions on. We watched one this weekend which had the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter playing in a scene.  The closed caption at that moment?: "[Peppy music]". I would have paid money to be in a room with Mick Jagger at that moment.  
• I'll send notes to myself sometime for potential random thoughts. This is one that I emailed to myself yesterday: "coat hanger door lock memory."  Ironically, I have no idea what that means. 
• Mrs. LL worries about my memory.  I heard The Ticket's Bob Sturm talk about how he has noticed he can remember incredible details from decades ago but when it comes to remembering things from the last five years, not so much. 
• The missing dogs of Wise County will not go away . . . 

Jacksboro: Live Ammo?