Simple presence does not equate to fulfillment of (2) (b) it should be added.
They were charged with murder. Lacking being charged with conspiracy to go there that day to commit some other crime, prosecution should have evidence that each and every one indicted went there planning on murdering others.
All along in this also; deaths arising from acts of self defense are not "murder". Not when there was no other plan to commit what would clearly be crime.
If that not be so, then every concealed carry permit holder, if knowingly arming himself against potential danger, successfully defended himself by eliminating a threat to their own life by killing another ---would be guilty of murder.
One of the most basic of all civil rights is the right to one's own life. Therefor, the right to engage in acts of self-protection cannot be abridged.
Our rights do not come from law, nor from the Constitution. According to the framers of the Constitution, as it is written in the Declaration of Independence, those rights originate from Nature's God (hence, are natural rights not arising from codification of law).
Civil Rights or God-Given Rights? [Michael Peroutka]
Mr. Dragon, Sir,
I have re-read your legal opinions.... and I am incredibly embarrassed. I (and perhaps Mr. TexasGator as well, although I do not have Power of Attorney to speak for him) am ashamed that I did not see your spot-on and decisively convincing legal reasonings at first glance.
I hope you do not object, but I have forwarded a compilation of them to the Sitting Clerk at the Texas Supreme Court. As I’m sure you know from your years of legal practice, SOOTSOT has a clerk available 24/365 to receive emergency motions, requests for stays of execution, Habeas Corpus pleas, etc, and of course, for the incredibly solid legal reasoning such as you displayed.
I hope you do not mind but I took the liberty to remove the spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, subject-verb agreement, capitalization, tense, pronoun and citation errors in your posts, but what the heck, compared to your Nobel-level jurisprudencial breakthroughs, what are a few dozen junior high school-level English errors?
The clerk promised to receive it and have the on-call Associate Justice review it tonight. He expects to be able to send telegrams before midnight, CDT, to all involved that a stay on all prosecution has been issued IMMEDIATELY.
Likewise, he promised that Chief Justice Hecht will have your moving papers on his desk before 9:00 Monday. He says the CJ likes a blueberry muffin with his morning coffee, and he will cover the muffin with your papers so the CJ cannot avoid reading your learned work.
The clerk expects a permanent stay before noon, and an emergency bill before the State Senate and House to compensate the poor, downtrodden victims of this judicial abuse for their time, pain and the psychological abuse they have suffered at the hands of the State.
He also said, despite what will probably be the Governor’s firm desire to do so, they will not be able to buy more ammunition for the Banditos, nor high-grade meth for those who had it confiscated, but they will buy new motorcycles for all charged.
The Gov regrets he will not be able to pay for the medical bills of those shot nor the stage makeup for their upcoming TV appearances.
Sorry.
Thank you again for your unique legal perspectives. It is certainly no exaggeration that we all, especially Mr. TexasGator and myself, shall I dare say, were “amazed” by them.