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texas doesnt require premeditation or motive to establish murder
defense really had no option but to try it, as the only available plea to accept was 40 years tdcj from what I found in the record after the trial was concluded (i obviously didn't violate the judge's instruction not to go and try and do your own investigation of the crime, but rather consider only the evidence admitted at trial).... but if there was no lesser offer, he had no choice but to go to trial. and, it is very possible, knowing the harris county da's office, that he received a better offer than 40 yrs just before or even during trial, but the defense obviously rejected it, as we rendered a verdict.... hell, in tex, as in most states, you can plea out even as the jury is deliberating.....Comment -
Definitely, some interesting variables. Somebody will probably get OG's GF drunk someday and she will admit to hiding OG's weapon. The defendant deserves his time in jail - if he would have have got away with this event - he probably would have done it again or even been challenged by someone else. For all we know one of OG's buddies would have got him. The jury probably did him a favor by putting him in jail.Comment -
shit , up to 20-9, almost a third say not guilty......
interesting..... tho I am at peace with my verdict.....
hope young g fares well in prison, and gets out with good time with some of his life left to turn it around.....
he shows up at my house, I'll know it's time to come heavy....
(his girlfriend, on the street, before she knew i was the lawyer on the jury, said "we thought the damn lawyer would realize it was self defense and let him go; he let us down" -- so they guy is obviously gonna hold me at fault.....)Comment -
You can look in the mirror when you get up in the morning and see the face of someone you respect. Thank you for your service! The defendant got a fair trial from a jury of his peers. That being said - if there were 10 trials of the same kind of thing with different juries the defendant might be found innocent 3 times. Justice just is not an exact science.
I wish you the best! It would be interesting to hear what the judge would say - whether he agreed with the jury?Comment -
Guy messed up having the Judge decide how long. Seems like he could have got 20 and done a little less than 7 if he had went with the jury. 7 years seems fair for the situation. 9 isn’t all that bad either. System is ass backwards a lot of the time. Pedophiles, and rapists get less time than drug users or dealers. Murder gets less than users or dealers a lot of the time as well.
Anyway, good work Donker. Well done by you and the rest of the jury. Sucks that someone died because of something so meaningless that they probably didn’t care about 5 minutes after it happened. Young G calling out the other side for a fight and OG after being called to do the fighting. Just went through the motions and both probably hoped the other would disappear. OG should have just said nah, fck that from the start. Wasn’t even his fight to fight.Comment -
judge was a nice black woman who was swept into office on hiLIARy's coattails in the strongly blue Harris County Texas.... (hispanics and blacks are the majority)..... she talked to us after the verdict, very upbeat, and told us "you made the right decision".... then she gave him 28 yrs in the pen, which should mean a little more than 9 yrs with good time, assuming young g can keep his ass out of trouble in the pen, which may not be easy if there are any of OG's boys ridin the pine in there with him......
but she wholeheartedly agreed with our verdict.... (as I noted a couple of times, young g elected to have her sentence him, and probably a bad decision, as we'd have been in the 20-25 yr range; the state had offered him 40 yrs in a plea deal before trial, which he wisely rejected).Comment -
exactly, I'd have leaned toward 7 yrs actual time, ie, 22 yrs instead of 28..... we didn't deliberate at all on sentence since we weren't deciding it, so I have no idea how the others felt, but think we'd have come in 20-25, saving young g a few years for sure.....
and, agree with your sentiments exactly on how senseless the event was, and how both parties probably gave so little thought into the events that unfolded, and how rapidly it escalated once guns were introduced into the situation.... bad deal all the way around, but hard to undo once lethal force gets displayed and shit goes down quick.Comment -
one other note, we only had one half black juror on the panel; and given the heavy hispanic/black populations in h-town, it indicated, as did the entire jury room the morning of selection, how few hispanics/blacks honor their jury summons.....
OJ got a handful of black jurors on his jury; young g should have had more -- but they simply didn't show up to the courthouse that fateful day when we were impaneled.....
wound up with two hispanics, one asian, one mulatto, and 8 whites..... six females, six males...Comment -
I feel like I wasted time reading this
who caresComment -
perfect example of why there's such division in our nation.... too many similarly just don't give a shit about their fellow citizen.....
hope you don't get people with that attitude on any jury that ever has to make a decision on something very important to you in your life....Comment -
OJ was innocent
We will never know who did itComment
