“While its true that Delay could face up to life in prison, he’ll likely get a short sentence or a suspended sentence and probation.”
This case was a complete travesty and Ronnie Earle is contemptible. Luckily, the judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals are now all Republicans, same with the Texas Supreme Court. Austin is the San Fran of Texas.
I’m reading all this stuff that says the appeals court can’t change a “finding of fact.” But what about a case where the jury clearly and definitely makes the wrong decision in the face of all the evidence (often called “jury nullification”)? If the jury clearly makes the wrong decision, then the Appeals court must have some way of overturning such a decision, otherwise many innocent people could be railroaded by heavily biased county prosecutors and biased juries for political reasons. There has to be some way in the law to prevent blatant political persecution. It may be very unusual for the appeals court to overturn this kind of conviction, but I would bet that there’s some way under the law that they can overturn DeLay’s conviction.