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The Casey Anthony trial began this week 10 years ago. And the defense worked. The whole trial was so insane. Her dad was called by a witness for the State and denied involvement at all. Casey didn't testify (although she did tell detectives early in the investigation that the child was kidnapped by a nanny.) She was convicted only of misdemeanors of lying to police.
- Bloodshed America.
- Gun violence is so common that you will forget this story by the end of the week.
- Pretty good little graphic from the Texas Tribune for the current state of legislation at the Texas capitol right now:
- I was wrong on this legal prediction: Yesterday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found the 2015 Texas Revenge porn statute constitutional. (Legal nerd stuff: To save it, the court had to write a culpable mental state into the statute and then even found it passed the "strict scrutiny" test. Interestingly, they designated the opinion as "Do not publish.")
- More legal nerd stuff: The opinion starts off with a major mistake. How does the legislature amend a statute in 2017 in response to an opinion that came out in 2018?
- Over-the-top legal nerd stuff: I tried to figure out those footnotes. The statute in issue in the case, Ex Parte Jones, was enacted in 2015 making revenge porn a Class A misdemeanor. That's what the defendant was charged under. It was amended in 2017 like the footnote says but that amendment only increased the penalty from a misdemeanor to a State Jail Felony. (See page 19, line 19 of House Bill 2552.) It was amended again in 2019 to add the culpable mental state element of "with the intent to harm", and I'm guessing that's the legislative change that the court meant to reference. I hate it when I go down these rabbit holes.
- Which office does he go to in order to get his reputation back?
- They've finally decided there are too many Wise Countians going into Tarrant County every day.
- My calculation of inmates in the Wise County Jail who have been there over 300 days.
- The Supreme Court's Obamacare opinion still hasn't been handed down. (Remember that the case started with a Fort Worth federal district judge's decision to strike the health care law down in 2018.) It could come out today at 9:00 a.m. CST, but the Supreme Court has gone Hollywood over that last few years and tends to release the most publicly watched cases on the last possible day.
- Whatever happened to this criminal case against Netflix filed by a small town Texas DA? I can't find an update.
- We've got Las Vegas over/under lines released for total wins for the upcoming college football season. Link for all schools.
- When scanning front pages across the state today, I saw this story on the cover of the Wichita Falls paper. I could only hear Rodney Dangerfield say, "Country clubs and cemeteries are the biggest wasters of prime real estate!" from Caddyshack (which is now 41 years old.)
- I was reminded yesterday that the Decatur football stadium still has a grass field. I think even the softball field in Boyd has artificial turf.
