Any update on the sex offender rumor? Or are we just spreading malicious bullshit without any evidence?
ETA: The Minnesota Registry gives nothing for Sharmake Omar, the man who recorded the racist piece of shit.
You might want to tell the Collin County D.A. that he got it wrong. 
Some law firms apparently need to brush up on their knowledge as well.
Is anyone really surprised at Texas charging a black person for a crime that isn’t on the books?
In that case it would be easy for the defense to get the charge dismissed.
But:
Section 19.02 of the Texas Penal Code states that:
So that apparently explains the first degree murder charge.
Seems as if the defense could make a good case for part (d).
I’m pretty sure that’s political rhetoric from a DA, and not the indictment of record.
Interestingly enough, from the DA’s own page linked before:
Murder is a first-degree felony offense that, upon conviction, carries a punishment range of 5 to 99 years, or life, in a Texas prison, and an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
By that reasoning, all murder is first-degree murder in Texas.
I have a theory as to the language the DA is using, and I think this is the point you were making @Jackmannii.
Texas doesn’t officially have different degrees of murder. There are four types of criminal homicide as per the Texas Penal Code; Capital Murder, Murder, Manslaughter, and Criminally Negligent Homicide. Murder is a charge on its own and doesn’t have different degrees, and that is what Anthony was charged with.
At the sentencing phase, however, there is a chance for the murder to be treated as a second-degree felony which brings a lesser penalty. Murder is by default a first-degree felony, but if it is established that it was done in a fit of rage (or some other “fit of passion” kind of mitigating circumstance) then it can be downgraded.
That is not something decided at this stage of a case, so it’s just murder. I believe the DA is stating a belief that the circumstances will not warrant a downgrade, and so is using the term “first-degree murder” as a shorthand, even though that’s technically not a legal term in that jurisdiction and it’s only an assumption on the DA’s part. And it’s not true that this was the nature of the indictment, I still believe that’s just political rhetoric as I previously suggested.
(IANAL, let alone a Texas one, but this seems consistent with all the info I’ve found available on the subject.)
To clarify (I hope) what everyone is almost saying in plain English, felonies in general come in degrees of severity.
Not that there is e.g. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree burglary, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree robbery, etc. But rather that (made up examples) homicide, mayhem, and kidnapping are 1st degree felonies, robbery, assault, and rape are 2nd degree felonies, and all other felonies are third degree.
Murder has a special feature that in can be downgraded from degree 1 to degree 2 under circumstances already explained.
Other than that exception, all homicides are first degree felonies. But are not “murder in the first degree” as we know from TV (IOW, the California penal code).
For what it’s worth, a more appropriate charge in my opinion would have been manslaughter.
Maybe that’s what it will ultimately be bargained down to.
It would, in a place under the rule of law. It would also, in a place under the rule of law, be easy to appeal on grounds of inadequate counsel, where the defense attorney slept through the case. Or where the defendant clearly stated a desire for a lawyer, and was not provided one. Or to get a defendant who hadn’t even been tried yet off of Death Row. Or to appeal a case where the judge told the jury that the defense had to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
OK, only one of those cases was Texas, one was Louisiana, and two were Alabama, but none of those states operates under the rule of law.
Not to hijack…but I’m curious about this case. Could you point us toward a summary?
I’ve returned the book to the library, but it’s one of the cases mentioned in Just Mercy, by Brian Stevenson.
so a lone Black man surrounded by bunch of angry Whites shouldn’t feel “trapped”?
Not when those whites are asking him to leave. What a stupid question.
no possibility of lynching of course, not in south
Under those circumstances, no.
You can’t lynch someone who leaves, and they were trying to get him to leave.
And angry mobs are well known for following a logical set of steps to achieving their goals with the least amount of conflict necessary.
None of the reports I’ve seen described an “angry mob”. A few teenagers yelling at a guy to leave because they think he’s in the wrong spot is not an “angry mob”. These hypothetical scenarios are completely irrelevant to this case.
Yelling, shoving, punching, all completely nonviolent things that don’t involve conflict.
An “angry mob” did all of those things? Where is your cite for that? None of the articles I’ve read suggest that.
One person put hands on the suspect, and that’s the person who ultimately got stabbed.
These made-up scenarios all sound bad, but none of them are anywhere near what has been reported.
Nor do they contradict what’s been reported. There’s a lot we don’t know.