Law of Parties

Despite the name, the law of parties is anything but fun. Recently Robert Lee Thompson was executed due to this controversial law, which says that accomplices can face the death penalty if they were present when the crime was being committed. The Board of Pardons and Paroles which hardly ever urges for clemency, has already twice in the past two years called for a commutation for criminals convicted under this law. While there is a lot about this case that I'm unsure about detail wise, I'm concerned that the law of parties will continue to lead to problems in the future perhaps even leading innocent people to jail or worse. Seems to me that an innocent person, I'm not suggesting that Thompson was innocent by any means, could get roped into one of those wrong place at the wrong time situations.

Why this law was ever devised is beyond me as it sounds like the rule of a parent who wants to punish their child out for less that savory characters and possibly scare them straight. This law if nothing else could use a revision that made it where the accomplice got a lesser punishment or something.

Here is the Law of Parties if you'd like to read it:
Chapter 7.02 of the TX Penal Code says a person can be criminally responsible for another’s actions if that person acts with "the intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense" and "solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense, whether the defendant actually caused the death of the deceased or did not actually cause the death of the deceased but intended to kill the deceased or another or anticipated that a human life would be taken". Furthermore, "If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed."

Drunk Comment

My classmate Jeremy's most recent blog post on drunk driver blood tests got me to thinking. This somewhat recent policy of drawing blood upon the refusal of the breathalyzer test is downright scary. While I don't think I'll ever find myself in this situation, I don't like the thought of a cop with a needle coming towards me. I don't care how much training the officers are given, as even trained medical professionals (perhaps amateurs is more appropriate if they can't draw blood correctly) can mess something like that up and that is with a sober and calm person presumably. I know I'd be a lot more calm in that situation if someone in scrubs was doing the blood drawing. But hey look at it this way... if the officers get assaulted trying to draw blood via needle, they can just beat the crap out of the drunk and get it that way.

Proposistional Amendments

This November, tomorrow to be more specific, we will be able to vote on some new constitutional amendments to the Texas constitution. While there are 11 different propositions coming to the people to vote on, they are written in somewhat complex language which makes it difficult for the average person to understand which aside from not much being said about them leads to a lower voter turn out. I will break down proposition 11 to an understandable point and hopefully get you to go out and vote.

Proposition 11 says: "The constitutional amendment to prohibit the taking, damaging, or destroying of private property for public use unless the action is for the ownership, use, and enjoyment of the property by the State, a political subdivision of the State, the public at large, or entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight on a particular parcel of property, but not for certain economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes, and to limit the legislature's authority to grant the power of eminent domain to an entity."

This amendment is meant to limit the eminent domain power of the state, which for those that don't know what that is, it allows the government to take private property for state use with compensation. This sounds like a very good idea to me cause even if you receive compensation for your land the government is taking, you don't really have a choice. This amendment at least limits the purposes in which private land can be taken which is a step in the right direction as far as limiting this power goes.

Not many people actually vote in these types of elections so if you want your voice to be heard get out there and vote tomorrow!