In Austin, TX, District Attorney Ronnie Earle is warning that a narrow Texas appeals court majority is about to create two classes of felony crime through a ruling that would let Tom DeLay escape trial for conspiracy to violate the Texas Election Code.
If he can’t persuade them to reconsider, police and prosecutors would be powerless to bring conspiracy charges in a wide variety of felony crimes, perhaps including the next pair of Columbine-style killers who plot to bring their guns to a Texas school.
Four dissenting judges on the nine-member Court of Criminal Appeals agree that the court is about to make bad law and bad public policy in the course of throwing out a conspiracy charge against DeLay and two accused co-conspirators. Earle is trying, with a motion for rehearing filed Thursday, to persuade at least one more justice to reconsider.
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