doug thomas
01-09-2005, 08:51 AM
I found this sad comment on the state of criminal justice at
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/06/jealous.husband.ap/index.html
If you are mad enough, that is almost a complete defence to murder.
Let me get this right - murder four months, wounding 15 years - sounds like
the guy should have killed them both, or had his trials together given his
first, sympathetic jury.
Let me see - An insane person who kills gets life in prison, a sane person
with an anger problem gets probation.
For all of you who rail against the state of the law relating to child
protection, and I am among you many times, you can see that other areas of
the law are equally affected by bad legislation.
Doug Thomas
the article reads
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- A man sentenced to just four months in prison for
killing his wife, after a jury concluded he acted in a blind fury, drew a
15-year term for wounding her boyfriend.
Jimmy Dean Watkins pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted murder for shooting
Keith Fontenot on December 22, 1998. Watkins' estranged wife, Nancy, was
killed with multiple gunshots as she tried to dial 911 during the attack.
The jury at his 1999 trial found Watkins guilty of murdering his wife but
decided he acted with "sudden passion" when he discovered her with Fontenot.
In a decision that provoked an outcry, the jury recommended 10 years'
probation. Because of the jury's recommendation, the most the judge could
have given Watkins was six months behind bars. He sentenced Watkins to four
months.
Another wrinkle was added to the case in 2003, when two defense witnesses
who gave key testimony pleaded guilty to perjury. They had claimed that
Nancy Watkins and Fontenot had taunted Watkins in the hours before the
shooting.
The Watkinses' son, Eric, now 16, glared at his father in court Wednesday
and testified that he wished his last memory of his mother was not seeing
her dying on the kitchen floor.
"I will never call you Dad again," the boy, now Eric Braley, told Watkins. A
year after his mother's death, he was adopted by his former school counselor
and her husband.
Watkins had admitted the attack but claimed temporary insanity. Texas
defines "sudden passion" as being so overcome by rage, resentment or fear
that the defendant is "incapable of cool reflection." Jurors said they
recommended probation because they didn't think Watkins could be
rehabilitated in prison.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/06/jealous.husband.ap/index.html
If you are mad enough, that is almost a complete defence to murder.
Let me get this right - murder four months, wounding 15 years - sounds like
the guy should have killed them both, or had his trials together given his
first, sympathetic jury.
Let me see - An insane person who kills gets life in prison, a sane person
with an anger problem gets probation.
For all of you who rail against the state of the law relating to child
protection, and I am among you many times, you can see that other areas of
the law are equally affected by bad legislation.
Doug Thomas
the article reads
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- A man sentenced to just four months in prison for
killing his wife, after a jury concluded he acted in a blind fury, drew a
15-year term for wounding her boyfriend.
Jimmy Dean Watkins pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted murder for shooting
Keith Fontenot on December 22, 1998. Watkins' estranged wife, Nancy, was
killed with multiple gunshots as she tried to dial 911 during the attack.
The jury at his 1999 trial found Watkins guilty of murdering his wife but
decided he acted with "sudden passion" when he discovered her with Fontenot.
In a decision that provoked an outcry, the jury recommended 10 years'
probation. Because of the jury's recommendation, the most the judge could
have given Watkins was six months behind bars. He sentenced Watkins to four
months.
Another wrinkle was added to the case in 2003, when two defense witnesses
who gave key testimony pleaded guilty to perjury. They had claimed that
Nancy Watkins and Fontenot had taunted Watkins in the hours before the
shooting.
The Watkinses' son, Eric, now 16, glared at his father in court Wednesday
and testified that he wished his last memory of his mother was not seeing
her dying on the kitchen floor.
"I will never call you Dad again," the boy, now Eric Braley, told Watkins. A
year after his mother's death, he was adopted by his former school counselor
and her husband.
Watkins had admitted the attack but claimed temporary insanity. Texas
defines "sudden passion" as being so overcome by rage, resentment or fear
that the defendant is "incapable of cool reflection." Jurors said they
recommended probation because they didn't think Watkins could be
rehabilitated in prison.
