Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Everyone got bent out of shape over a video showing a full body cavity search of a woman who was stopped by a DPS trooper for throwing out a cigarette. A lawsuit followed which was settled six months later for $185,000.

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• A Criminal Referral that was well deserved. Democracy was on the brink. A hammer needs to fall. Hard.
  
  
  
• And it is not only only about the riot on January 6th where he brought his MAGA minions to DC because with the promise that it was going to "be wild" -- prefaced by telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" on national TV. 
• It's also about the 187 minutes -- as the rest of us watched in horror -- where he did nothing other than to rile the crowd up with a tweet about Mike Pence. 
• It was prior to that day when he attempted to coerce Mike Pence to throw out the constitutionally submitted electoral votes. 
• It was the actual submitting of Fake Electors.
• It was tampering with the will of the Georgia people by telling its Secretary of State to  "find 11780 votes."
• It was his continuous lie, taken from the toolkit of Nazi propaganda wars, that he won the election. 
• We finally heard from Trump-favorite Hope Hicks yesterday. She said those around Trump told him to send out a tweet before January 6th to tell the mob not to be violent. He refused. And there are texts to back her up.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Rumor on the streets is that local Methodist churches, especially in Bridgeport, are having some big time fights. It's about an issue sweeping the country.  
  
  
• That's a long time to deliberate on punishment -- especially on Christmas week. They decided to spend another night in a hotel and come back today.  
  
  
  
• This is how it works. Legal nerd warning. 
• The jury has to pick a prison time number between 2 and 20 years. Even if they want to give him probation, they still have to pick a number. 
• The punishment verdict form will tell them that if they want to give him probation, however, that (1) the number they pick must be between 2 and 10 years and (2) they have to indicate by their verdict that probation should be granted.
• If they grant probation, the judge sets the length of that probation. He has a cap of 10 years, but that's what I'd guess the judge would do. So you could theoretically have a sentence of, say, 5 years in prison (the number the jury picked) probated for 10 years (the number the judge picks). In that scenario, if Dean violates the probation during the 10 years, he would then he is subject up to the jury sentence of 5 years, but not longer than that.
• If the jury grants probation, the judge cannot overrule them. But he can be sneaky and order a maximum of 180 days in the local county jail as a condition of the probation. 
• What if they can't agree on punishment and are hung? That's possible. In that scenario, the Manslaughter conviction still stands and there could be another jury empaneled for the sole purpose of deciding the punishment.  But he can never be retried for Murder. He was acquitted on that once the jury found him guilty only of Manslaughter. 
• If Dean is sentenced to prison instead of probation,  how long will he actually serve? This is the extremely nerdy part.
• Normally, I would say he has to serve one-half of his actual sentence before becoming eligible for parole. And I'll still say that.
• But I only hesitate because I've not heard anything about there being a "deadly weapon finding" which must be present in order to trigger the 1/2 rule. It's automatic for Murder, but not for Manslaughter. If there is not a deadly weapon finding, he has to serve only 1/4 of his time but he also gets good conduct time (normally three to four days for one real day) calculated into that 1/4.
• I'm stunned I haven't' heard anything about a deadly weapon finding. The only thing I can think of is that the jury specifically found him guilty of using a "firearm" when they found him guilty of the lesser included offense of Manslaughter. If so, that's the equivalent of a deadly weapon finding and the 1/2 rule applies. But I've not heard if the Court's charge/instructions were that specific.
• If there is a prison sentence, can he get out of the hoosegow pending appeal by posting an appeal bond? 
• Generally, if the prison sentence is for less than 10 years, a person is entitled to an appeal bond. (See art. 44.04(b)). 
• But the appeal bond is not mandatory in that situation (as a case released last week by the appellate court in Fort Worth pointed out, see footnote 4) -- the judge can still deny it in his discretion. (See art. 44.04(c)).
• But that same statute also says that you can never get an appeal bond if you are convicted for any offense listed in art. 42A.054. And although Manslaughter is not listed in it, that article also includes any felony where the jury has found the defendant used a deadly weapon.  Again, that's why a deadly weapon finding is important, and I'm bugged I've not read anything about it.
• Bottom line: I don't think he is getting out pending appeal if he receives any amount of prison time. 
• In Trophy Club? YouTube video. He backed off the accelerator in a hurry or this could have actually have been bad.
  
  
  
• Missing Aggie:
  
  
  
• You knew it was coming. The grift from Kari Lake officially began yesterday. It's always about the grift, and the preying on the gullible, with these people.
  
  
  
• Trump may end up making her wife #4. Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The difference between the big ailments out there right now:
  
  
  
• And another x 2.
  
  
  
• Below is an example from yesterday yesterday of why the Transfer Portal is ruining college football. It's how I felt in 2000 when I saw Randall Cunningham start for the Cowboys at QB soon after free agency was brought to the NFL.
  
  
  
• I'm watching the first season of White Lotus. I really like it. And I got an extra jolt when it dawned on me that it has a tinge of being a modern day dark comedy reincarnation of Fawlty Towers.