Evidently one hooker is worth $150 in Texas.

[jaydot]

it's open season in the u.s. of a, folks. get your gat and git you a target. land of the totally lunatic, home of the barking mad.

[Seabass]

land of the totally lunatic, home of the barking mad.

We're also fat.

[Seth]

Isn't prostitution illegal? That'd be like shooting a crack dealer because he left your house without giving you your crack.

If you gave him the money, at night, and he left without giving you your crack, it's robbery and yes, you can shoot him in Texas.

Keeps the crack dealers honest.

I suppose they could try to prosecute him for soliciting sex for money, but it's a misdemeanor and all they have is his statement, since she didn't actually have sex with him.

[Seth]

I can't believe double jeopardy would prevent the prosecution from appealing this travesty... the man, the jury, and the (presumed elected and incompetent/populist) judge, who obviously did not properly instruct the jury, need be fed to the crocs.

Believe it. That's one of the saving graces of our society...they get ONE and only one shot at convicting you (mistrials not included), and if they can't, you're good to go. Prevents miscarriages of justice like the case of Amanda Knox, who was acquitted but because some prosecutor has a butthurt is facing a retrial...and perhaps another one....and another one. That's how King George used to do it too. If they didn't get you the first time, they just ginned up some new evidence and tried you again.

Of course it's imperfect here, as the current rage is to essentially duplicate every state felony in federal law so that if the state doesn't get you, the feds can prosecute you for violating an identical federal law. That's a bad, bad precedent we've set that I hope gets turned around.

The jury in this case heard the evidence and applied the law, which is quite explicit. Good for them for not caving to prosecutorial pressure to ignore the clear mandates of the law and convict him anyway.

[Seth]

I wondered, recently, if the US could possibly get any shittier.

Yes it can, and it did.

Why don't they all shoot people who don't fulfill a deal? Things didn't go better, when I bought a can of coca cola? Bam bam !!

Texas is a lunatic shithouse. It's now official.

Hyperbolic nonsense. The law is designed to deter nighttime muggings and robbery, and I'm all for it. If you don't want to get shot, don't rob people. Really simple, that.

[Svartalf]

I can't believe double jeopardy would prevent the prosecution from appealing this travesty... the man, the jury, and the (presumed elected and incompetent/populist) judge, who obviously did not properly instruct the jury, need be fed to the crocs.

The people who passed that law should probably be the ones going to the crocs. The judge and jury are only there to determine whether any laws were broken, and if so, proper sentencing.

I'm not sure just what the statute is, or how much it has been abused in that case, so I have to keep some reserve about that, and restrict my crocs to eating ones whose guilt is averred... but you could be right. So many lawmakers are mostly worth being ridden out of their office on a rail, tarred and feathered, and retired via firing squad it is entirely possible you may be right, Seabass.

[orpheus]

I wondered, recently, if the US could possibly get any shittier.

Yes it can, and it did.

Why don't they all shoot people who don't fulfill a deal? Things didn't go better, when I bought a can of coca cola? Bam bam !!

Texas is a lunatic shithouse. It's now official.

Hyperbolic nonsense. The law is designed to deter nighttime muggings and robbery, and I'm all for it. If you don't want to get shot, don't rob people. Really simple, that.

So you value objects over human lives. Because that's essentially what this law is saying.

[Svartalf]

This wasn't a mugging, it was fraud/non violent theft, if that much... maybe the girl really was an escort rather than a hooker after all... the law has been terminally misused.

[Blind groper]

Total insanity.
What do you expect from a nation that has not got the basic sense to keep guns out of reach of total nut cases?

[Seth]

I wondered, recently, if the US could possibly get any shittier.

Yes it can, and it did.

Why don't they all shoot people who don't fulfill a deal? Things didn't go better, when I bought a can of coca cola? Bam bam !!

Texas is a lunatic shithouse. It's now official.

Hyperbolic nonsense. The law is designed to deter nighttime muggings and robbery, and I'm all for it. If you don't want to get shot, don't rob people. Really simple, that.

So you value objects over human lives. Because that's essentially what this law is saying.

No, I value consequences for criminality. It is the dead hooker who chose her fate. She could have just given the guy a blow job...or given him his money back. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

[Cormac]

Normally, in law, if you lose your money during the course of a felony that you are committing, the courts will not compensate you for that loss.

This was a travesty of justice. That guy should have balked it down to experience, and should have been more careful in his selection of his "companion" for the evening.

He could have simply reported her ads to Craigslist, for example.

[rainbow]

Extensive discussion of this over at Ratskep, if anyone's interested. http://www.rationalskepticism.org/news- ... 39764.html

Yes, of course they would have the moral authority to dicuss justice.

[Audley Strange]

Extensive discussion of this over at Ratskep, if anyone's interested. http://www.rationalskepticism.org/news- ... 39764.html

No thanks.

[Svartalf]

Extensive discussion of this over at Ratskep, if anyone's interested. http://www.rationalskepticism.org/news- ... 39764.html

No thanks.

tl:dr... got a glut from p1 of 16 at the time.

[Audley Strange]

I'm sure that meant something, to you.