What. The. Fuck.

[Maraya1969]

I can't believe this is happening in our United States.

Jury Acquits Texas Man For Murder Of Escort Who Refused Sex

A Texas jury acquitted a man for the murder of a woman he hired as an escort, after his lawyers claimed he was authorized to use deadly force because she refused sex.

Ezekiel Gilbert shot Lenora Ivie Frago in the neck on Christmas Eve, after she denied his requests for sex and wouldn’t return the $150 he had paid her, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Under Texas law, an individual is authorized to use deadly force to “retrieve stolen property at night,” and Gilbert’s lawyers cited that provision as justification for Gilbert’s action, reasoning that Frago had stolen $150 from him by taking his money without delivering sex. In a police interview played for jurors, Gilbert “never mentioned anything about theft,” a detective told the San Antonio Express-News. Frago, who was 21, was critically injured and died several months later.

While the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida has generated notoriety for NRA-backed Stand Your Ground laws, which authorize the unfettered use of deadly force without a duty to retreat in defense of one’s person or home, Texas’ exceedingly broad law goes well beyond this, to allow deadly force in protection of any piece of “tangible” or “movable” property.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/06/2117161/jury-acquits-texas-man-for-murder-of-escort-who-refused-sex/

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I sense some population thinning in Texas

now that this story has come to light.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. It gets worse.

Texas law allows for just about an deadly force with a gun....

This—of course—is about Texas laws on guns. We’re getting to the point in this state where maiming or killing anyone can be justified as legal so long as a gun is involved. Under this unbelievably expansive statute, someone can use deadly force “to prevent the other’s imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the nighttime.”

Read those words carefully. Under Texas law, if I see some kid getting ready to spray-paint his name on an underpass after dark, I can kill him. Criminal mischief at night can be a Class C misdemeanor involving less than $50 in damages, but in Texas, it effectively carries the death penalty. (Unless—and I can say this for damn sure—the youngster is a wealthy white boy. Then the murder charges will come raining down.) The enraged shooter can also kill anyone fleeing with a piece of property that isn’t his.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/eichenwald/2013/05/why-ezekiel-gilbert-s-acquittal-proves-the-lunacy-of-texas-s-gun-laws

I lived in Texas....I have heard all about these laws, but at the time, I thought that it was just talk. Lately, the lunatics have started to run the asylum.

[JanetLovesObama]

3. smh

You'd have to live here in Texas to know just how fucked up this state is. I hate this shit hole. Planning to move to Oregon at the end of this year. Wish me luck !

[Maraya1969]

5. Good luck to you! I would move too. Florida is not that great either though.

[OrwellwasRight]

8. There is no explaining Texas.

Especially to a Californian.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. If it weren't for my job...

I would go back to Cleveland. Of course lately my home state has been doing crazy shit, too. Wish I could afford the PNW

[BootinUp]

4. "Killing cattle's a hangin offense around these parts...

we'd be within our rights if we shot you where you stand."

Guess the movie.

[Maraya1969]

6. Blazing Sadles! I have no idea.

[BootinUp]

9. Silverado.

And they would not have been within their rights, they would have just lied after t hey killed the guy they were talking to. Sounds like Texas is sort of like a cowboy movie.

[Skittles]

7. as I said before, his story does not ring true

I believe that gal got spooked and was running for her life

[BrotherIvan]

10. Maybe because he was pointing a gun at her

This story is just sick.

[Skittles]

15. exactly

my guess is, he's the kind of guy who REALLY gets off on fear, and pulled the gun as part of a sex game - he is indeed one sick fuck

[Maraya1969]

11. But accounding to the law in Texas he still had the right to kill her if he gave her money.

I can't believe I just wrote that sentence.

[MattBaggins]

12. I don't believe so

This was a bad definition of theft.

Any money that guy gave her for coming to her house was a gift. I can't believe that even under Texas law, you can demand a gift back and then claim theft. This was murder.

Prosecutor was not very good.

[madokie]

13. As I've said in an earlier post about this

I think this is an indictment on how a lot of people view a prostitute and this young woman would clearly be in their minds a prostitute. This verdict does not surprise me one bit