Sometimes, It Snows in Texas . . . in August

It doesn't happen very often, but it happened today. A person accused of murder was found not guilty by a Harris County jury today. Congratulations to her defense attorney for pulling off this most rare feat. For those of you not as familiar with Texas justice, Harris County is home to Houston, and the county responsible for putting more people on death row than any other county in Texas. In fact, I believe it has put more people on death row than any state except Texas (obviously), California, and Florida.

From what I have read about the case, it sounds like prosecutors felt the need to charge her because of her actions afterward in initially letting her son take the blame for the shooting. But, by the son's own testimony in court, the woman had just been severely beaten by the "victim," had retreated to get a gun, and the "victim" kept advancing on her anyway. Unless the state was disputing those facts, and it doesn't seem from the press coverage that they were, then they never should have even prosecuted this case. It seems like their main argument to the jury was that she should have called the police instead of shooting him. That's ridiculous. The police could not possibly have gotten there in time to prevent him from further assaulting or killing her or her son. If he had been an intruder instead of her boyfriend, they never would have prosecuted her.