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The Death Penalty, Accomplice Liability, and Disparate Sentencing: A Texas Post

Jeffrey Wood sat in the get-away pickup while his accomplice went inside a gas station in Kerrville, Texas and robbed and murdered the clerk.  Wood is on death row, while his accomplice is serving a life sentence for the robbery and murder.

The linked article would like us to believe that accomplice liability is an anomaly in the law, and Texas is unusual in applying it.  I can tell you that it is not.  From what I see, Texas is a Model Penal Code state like Illinois, and the prevailing law, as I know it, is that when two or more persons enter into a criminal enterprise, each person is equally liable for the acts committed by any member of the enterprise during the course of the crime.  So Mr. Wood can be sentenced to death for the capital murder physically carried out by his accomplice.

But maybe he shouldn't be.  Not only because he was not the one who pulled the trigger, even though that is a factor in mitigation if not a dispositive factor.  Because his accomplice, the shooter, was not.  It is called disparate sentencing and it has been a winner for me in sentences far less severe that death.  People should receive, to the extent that it is possible given their backgrounds and other factors in aggravation and mitigation, the same sentence for the same crime.

It may be that the shooter should have gotten the death penalty, and it was a miscarriage of justice that he did not.  It does not matter.  The principle of equal justice under the law should require giving the same pass to Wood.

Bad Boy Calvin's Opinion of SCOTUS

Bunkparlous

Bunkparlous -- adj.
An obscure 21st century word, coined by me, from
Bunk -- n. (informal) any bed; v. to sleep together; share living quarters
and
Parlous -- adj. full of danger or uncertainty; precarious.

Please feel free to use it in any manner you like. I use it for persons of the opposite sex of dubious intellect, sanity, morals and hygiene.

The Internet Is A Giant Garbage Can UPDATE: Apologies To Garbage Cans

Period.  Fixed that for you, Jerry.

UPDATE:  Upon reflection, I apologize to garbage cans.  They are useful things, and waste disposal is a vital societal function.

It's A Man Thing, You Wouldn't Understand

The NSA Has Been Monitoring Facebook

All I have to say about that is:

أوباما تمتص جرذ قرد

(Click for translation.)

h/t SayUncle.

Thing I Learned Today

What "derpiness" is, and that it can be beautiful.

BOYCOTT: PLEASE DO NOT BUY WISCONSIN BEER OR DAIRY PRODUCTS

A cheesehead SWAT team murdered a baby deer at a St. Francis animal shelter.

Under The Spreading Chestnut Tree

I had only read it in the book, a long time ago.

Clink this link if the embed is not working.

Hurt Feelings Report

Tiger Woods complains that Sergio Garcia made a "hurtful" remark about him.  A formal hurt feelings report is rumored to be in the works:

(Click to enlarge)

Majestic

A Little Fun With MS Paint

You Had One Job, Lowe's

Says Uncle.

Vinegar for Slow or Mostly Clogged Drains

works.  Baking soda is idiotic.

A principal cause of drain clogs is mineral build-up from the water itself, rust from older iron pipes, and black mold (really, yes, black mold in your drains).  Vinegar will dissolve those.  (As well as your granite or marble countertop if you're not careful.)

DO NOT USE BAKING SODA NO MATTER WHAT SOMEBODY MORE STUPID THAN YOU SAID.  Throwing baking soda down the drain along with the vinegar will defeat the process and actually add to the clog.  The vinegar will be working to dissolve the baking soda, the baking soda will be working to neutralize the vinegar, and the clog will be eating popcorn and watching the two fight it out.  Once the baking soda has neutralized the vinegar, it will reform itself into a solid and become assimilated into the clog.  The idea of combining baking soda and vinegar was likely conceived by idiots who think that the foaming bubbles will work out the clog.  For that matter, never throw baking soda down your drains, ever.  It's powdered rock, for crying out loud.  Get past fifth-grade science fair volcanoes, morons, and think about how things work. 

So here's how you do it.  Get a gallon  of cheap white distilled vinegar from the supermarket.  Pour it down your drain until it backs up to the top of your drain.  Start boiling a teakettle full of water.  You should see, after a time, the vinegar drain out.  Pour the boiling water down the drain.  If you have been eating all your vegetables and saying your prayers every night, you should see the water drain fast with a whoosh and/or gurgle.  Clog gone.

To be safe, pour the remaining vinegar down the drain.  Keep pouring even though it's draining away.  Vinegar is cheap.  Pour another teakettle of boiling water down the drain.  Get the idea?   You're hunting down the broken up survivors of the clog.

As a final step, wash the vinegar (and any clog remnants) thoroughly out of your pipes by letting your faucets run for a couple of minutes.  You don't want it sitting there -- it will corrode the pipes.

WARNING:  If you do not know that boiling water and vinegar should be handled carefully because they can hurt you or your family members, you have no business being alone on the internet.  Find an "assisted living" home that does not have a minimum IQ requirement.

Sorority Scold Resigns

says Patterico:

The Boston Marathon Bombers' Mom

is not happy.

The Standard By Which Bouzouki Music Is Judged

Just As Long As It's Sharp

Don't get hung up on the knife.

ΠΡΩΤΟΜΑΓΙΑ

Ας θυμηθουμε τα θηματα του Κουμουνισμου.

For Uncle, My Mother's Knife

We're farmfolk and this is the only knife my mother used for as long as I knew her, fifty-four years or so, from cutting the head off a rooster, skinning a rabbit, turning a pig into ham, bacon and sausage, peeling potatoes, dicing onions, slicing bread .... My father kept it sharp with a file.

It's an Okapi, German-made, of plain carbon steel, and likely a lot older than I am.

The Weddings Rings Were Gold

Gold, too, the chains that bound our youth. Why didn't you see them?

Open the window for the May breeze. We started for one place and to another life takes us.

Finally, Something About Mayor Bloomberg I Like

Mayor Bloomberg, the richest man in New York, only owns two pairs of shoes.

The last time I bought shoes was in June, 2001.

Lice Like Clean Hair

Who would of thunk it? No perfumed shampoos, no conditioners, no hairsprays.
I have a perfume allergy and I wash with scentless soaps and shampoos. The baby, too, every day.
Then she was sent home, from school.
We shaved our heads, threw out our pillows, washed our clothes, bedsheets and pillowcases, three times, and now I'm sneezing my lungs out because of RID, Rosemary, and Fairy Tales.

Is Blogging Mainly Whining?

About the context of a story, about the way the story is reported, about the media outlet that published it, about another blogger's treatment of the story? Sure seems that way to me.

Man up and do your own original reporting.

A Very Pretty Kukri

That belongs to GuardDuck.

He writes, "I like a well used knife, so I really like DirtCrashr's. But just because; here's a pic of my presentation model kukri."

The Advantage A Knife Has Over A Gun,

if there's nobody you want to shoot, you can always whittle.
From Texas Machinist:

W-2 Brine-Quenched

One of mine. A Sykes-Fairbairn WWII commando knife.

A Kukri

that belongs to DirtCrashr.
As always, click on picture to embigen.

A Picture For Anwyn

When I Am King Of The World

architects will not be allowed to put pipes under three inches of cement.

What looks like half a donut at the lower left of the upper right quarter is water from a broken hot water pipe.



Took two of us seven hours to break through the cement and stop the leak, and I still have to restore the floor and the wall.

Katana and Gunto (Updated With Saber)

The top four photos are from Texas Machinist (who has his own site at Texas Machinist, naturally) and writes:

"This was a sword [my father] got in combat. I don't remember what island but the officer was leading his men with a Nambu in his right hand and the sword in his left. One of my father[']s friend[s] knew how to take off the handle and read the date and family name on the shank. It seems an odd length, shorter than a katana but not as short as the normal short sword. I know many were shortened for later military use but I have no idea on this one. The blade is mirror like and the edge is sharp."







These two are mine, of a gunto, a machine-made but still very good sword, that has decorated my daughter's playroom since she was born.
(Some Greek parents put a knife under their babies' cribs as a charm against evil. That's not why I did it.)

As always, click to embigen.

UPDATE: Saber, also from Texas Machinist
Note the Western design with the chrysanthemum decoration on the hilt.

What Do You Do With A Broken Scissors?

Take the remaining good blade and make it into a knife. The wood is very old pine. Practically fossilized, no sealers necessary.

Terms of Use Reposted

I'm reposting my terms of use for this site just because I want to:
I maintain this site for my own amusement and no other reason. By visiting you expressly agree that you have no rights or expectations to anything here. If you don't like something, tough titty. Take your snivelling to your mommy and ask her to wipe your nose and give you a great big hug and ice cream.

Rules For A Swordfighter

1. Be alert.
2. Get the big picture.
3. Separate hazards.
4. Always leave yourself an out.
5. Learn from your mistakes but leave them behind you.