Texas man free after killing witholding escort

[Colanth]

According to KXAS, this was the fourth fatal accidental shooting of a child in North Texas in less than one month.

But that's okay - as long as the gubmint doesn't take away our guns.

[rickcopeland648]

Only four? C'mon... Y'all can do better than that... Oh, wait... you included the word "accidental" so maybe that explains it...

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Don't forget though.. 4 DUI's in Texas, even if you never actually hit anything or even come close will get you ten years in Huntsville.
Murder, however, especially murderin' a ho is OHTAY!

I'd defend prostitution before I'd defend DUI? but something just ain't white with the rice here..

[Plu]

Please don't think that me saying "You're all crazy" implies I actually think all Texans are crazy. I'd just get tired of typing out "that law is crazy and a lot of texans are crazy, especially those who think the law is a good idea and/or worth upholding, which seems to be a large amount".

I actually heard a conference talk by a texan yesterday, and he didn't sound crazy. So there's at least one non-crazy texan out there.

I find the word 'crazy' is out of place here honestly. All those things that makes someone tired for typing 'crazy' are very similar things and relying on one principle which is not unique to Texans. It's a very common frame of mind. You could use the words, bigotry and its variants, even fascism, but 'crazy'? The word crazy has a very wide meaning. What's happening here is very simple and specific. Why so politically correct?

Using any other word would require me to think far more about this subject then I really care to, honestly.

[Seabear]

So this is how ass backwards Texas is?

Yup. Are you surprised?

Have another laff courtesy of y'all: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/06/t ... -birthday/

Yes because gun accidents ONLY happen in Texas.

He perversely twisted a law that was never meant to be used in that fashion to clear himself from such a horrific act.

To be accurate - HE - didn't pervert the intent of the law here: his LAWYERS did. And, it worked.

Blame the jury for buying it, the judge for allowing it, and the prosecutors for failing to make as strong of an argument as the defense. This is how rule of law works; sometimes you don't get the outcome you think you should. It happens everywhere, not just in Texas.

And just out of curiosity: in your opinions, does the woman bear any responsibility for her actions here at all? I mean, perhaps if she hadn't been whoring herself out on Craigslist as part of a scheme to take people's money, then things would have turned out differently. Not trying to indict the victim here, but her own actions put her in that situation.

It's not like she was going door to door asking for donations for the homeless when she got shot - she robbed a guy because she knew that under the circumstances, he probably wouldn't call the police. And I am willing to bet it wasn't the first time she had pulled this; she finally just scammed the wrong guy and it ended badly for her.

No one is innocent here.

[widdershins]

What baffles me is how people who frequent a website that prides itself on rationality can use one case judged by 12 people use to broadly categorize 26 million people as ass-backwards. It's ironic that the same sort of in-group and out-group mentality that exists in the minds of religious people seems to manifest itself in the atheist community, only in different ways.

I think I can safely say that people are making generalizations that they don't really believe to be true of "all Texans" much the same way we do when we say "Christians piss me off".  Obviously not all Christians piss me off.  Just the annoying ones.  But I don't go out of my way to differentiate when expressing the ways in which I am pissed off that particular time.  There is no argument that Texas is a source of much stupidity.  One recent example is the school textbooks fiasco where Texas educators decided that historical figures who held Jesus dear to their hearts were more deserving of mention in the classroom than other, more important or influential historical figures who were not Christian or Christian enough.  There's also that constant call to pray for this or that, most notably the end to drought by an idiot elected by Texans.  I think it's fair to say that Texas has earned such generalizations but nobody here thinks "all Texans" are anything in particular.