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Charlie Sheen, in the midst of his craziness, actually held a show at the AAC. That's a photo taken "seconds" before he took the stage. The now deceased Kidd Kraddick hosted.
- Some of the images I found of the hail in Keller last night are reminiscent of Fort Worth's Mayfest 1995.
- Images from President Biden address to the joint session of Congress last night.
- Two women behind him. That's never happened before.
- Cruz was dreaming of Cancun as he dosed off. Video.
- Compare and contrast.
- Fox and Friends found some grumpy Trumpers having breakfast in Pilot Point before 6:00 a.m. this morning to criticize the President:
- The story below gives me another reason to yell about Medical Examiner's: They should never rule a death a "homicide." First, that declaration from an ME only means that he believes the death was caused at the hands of another human being. That could be because of murder, negligence, or a complete accident. It has nothing to do with intent. Secondly, ruling something a "homicide" also has nothing to do with the medical cause of death which is the only expertise an ME has. That is, he can tell me a body ceased to function because of a bullet pieced someone's heart, but he has no idea from examining a body as to whether someone else caused that bullet to enter the body.
- That sentencing hearing in the district court in Decatur yesterday actually took place. The guy got 40 years. (CR21856)
- I'm not a fan of federal prosecutions for what should be state crimes -- especially when a state prosecution has already begun.
- I finally watched the oral arguments in the Amber Guyger appeal and have some hot opinions:
- There is almost a 100% chance the conviction will be affirmed.
- The problem on appeal, and I mentioned this at the time of the trial, is that the trial judge gave her almost everything she wanted which leaves almost nothing for appeal.
- The only real argument that Guyger's lawyer has made is that she was mistaken about which apartment she was in so this "mistake of fact" should cause the evidence to be considered insufficient to convict for murder. But I could tell from the court's questions that their position was: This isn't a "mistake of fact" case but a "self-defense" case. That is, in considering self-defense, the jury could take into consideration the evidence that she believed she was in the the wrong apartment and felt she was in apparent danger, but the jury rejected self-defense.
- Here's the problem for Guyger: Maybe the jury believed her claim she was in the wrong apartment yet didn't believe she needed to use lethal deadly force in her believe of self-defense. Bottom line: That's a rational finding by the jury and the appellate court isn't going to touch it.
- Any defendant's best shot is in the trial court with the jury. If convicted, it's all uphill after that and that hill might was well be Mount Everest.
- The only thing that Guyger didn't get at trial was that the judge excluded the testimony of the Texas Ranger who said he did not believe the case even met the the "probable cause to arrest" standard. But her lawyer did not make this a Point of Error on appeal so the court won't even consider it.
- Her appellate lawyer seems to be well respected but some things he did were weird. For example, when it came for his chance to rebut the State's argument (Guyger's lawyer has the right to go first and last), he completely declined! That's unheard of. He got 20 total minutes to save Amber Guyger from 10 years in prison and he didn't use his remaining five minutes.
- A very nit picky thing he did was to start off the argument by reciting the cause number of the indictment. Uh, who cares, the Court already knows it, and that's not an attention grabbing opening line.
- The lawyer for the DA's office, Doug Gladden, was very, very good.
- You know Guyger is in trouble when one judge complimented Gladden on his brief and the font he used. Really.
- The Court took the video of the hearing down yesterday (which seems wrong), but have kept the audio up here.
- Rudy Giuliani's apartment in Manhattan was searched by the Feds yesterday. I would hope that a "detached and neutral" federal judge found "probable cause" to believe "evidence of a crime" was there, but I have no faith in the system to believe those legal requirements were met. On a lighter note, the most famous landscaping company in America weighed in with a little comedy:
- Funny weather graphic out of Houston to explain the difference between a watch and an warning.
- I was trying to figure out who new reporter Peyton Yager on Fox 4 replaced, and I'm guessing it it is Allison Harris who has become a D.C. reporter for the new (and struggling) NewsNation.
- These two photos of Uptown in Dallas around the AAC taken 20 years apart are really amazing. Click here to see the enlarged photos and easily flip back and forth.
- The Musers on The Ticket named Rod Hill, drafted by the Cowboys in the first round in 1982, as the worst draft pick of all metroplex teams in history. I brought his name up to Gil Brandt, the man responsible for the pick, on Twitter 10 years ago and got blocked. It may have been my first block ever.
