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Notes -
On the Abbot pardon and I think he’s in a tough place. I kept finding articles like this:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/will-texas-governor-pardon-army-sergeant-sandbagged-soros-da-self-defense-shooting
I keep seeing this of evidence withheld in the grand jury. Probably true. But I kept noticing I never heard anything about the jury trial. Suddenly got around to doing some googling and came up with this:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2023-04-07/might-have-to-kill-a-few-people/
He had some really bad texts about wanting to kill protestors and triggering self defense. The first article does seem like a gun was at a minimum partially raised against him. So looks to me like he at a minimum tried to find himself in that situation and then found an obliging gun toting person raising it at him.
Thoughts
I don’t like overturning a jury verdict and especially since it was in Texas even though it was Austin I don’t think he got railroaded. And I’m saying it as someone who thinks Chauvin deserves a pardon.
Kind of looks like mutual combat which Chicago actually declared on a case. Not sure if that law is in place in Texas but reading the statute in Texas for stand your ground you can’t provoke the other side before declaring self defense. So even then you would get an issue of whether his driving constituted provocation.
It’s largely better when the government maintains a monopoly use of violence. This was not the case in 2020. A lot of these cases to me looks like the government abdicated its monopoly and created The Purge like situations where either said could claim mutual combat.
Even for my ideological enemies I feel it’s important to give them justice when wronged. I wouldn’t have hated a not guilty verdict on the grounds I can’t sort out the self defense claim. But from what I can see it looks like a reasonable decision.
Ah, hell. I hadn't heard about this. Either a tragedy or an outrage, not sure which.
Can a pardon be issued before the trial is actually complete? He was indicted, not convicted, on murder and assault charges, and the trial may well reveal any or all of that alleged exculpatory evidence. Watching the video, there's plenty of ambiguity. I don't want to jump to conclusions based off two Twitter clips and two sets of media spin, and neither should the Board.
As a side note--there's some dark humor in juxtaposing these claims about Soros DAs with the claims downthread.
I guess Texas could have some real weird rule, but generally yes. You're usually pardoned for crimes committed, not to overturn the conviction.
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