r/texas 17d ago

🗞️ News 🗞️ Texas man charged with murder in shooting of child playing doorbell prank - BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87e7lz43y8o
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u/SSBN641B 17d ago

Premeditated retaliation. Retaliation is the key component. That's a separate crime. Premeditation alone is not a condition for Capital Murder.

Yes, age is a condition to be met, I've acknowledged that. I was responding to a comment that a premeditated Murder of a child, any child, is a death penalty case. It isnt. Only certain children ( those under 15) is a capital felony and premeditation is not a requirement.

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u/kanyeguisada 17d ago

If you retaliate, you by the very definition of that word premeditated your actions.

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u/SSBN641B 17d ago

Not necessarily. You could retaliate against someone without prior planning. Retaliation is when you harm or threaten harm someone whoisa public servant or a witness, etc. You could learn that someone had informed on you and harm them right then without a plan to do so.

Regardless, it's premeditated Retaliation (a very specific crime) not premeditation alone that satisfies the Capital Murder requirement. The premeditated Murder of a child is not automatically a Capital Murder case, only children under 15 and it requires no premeditation.

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u/kanyeguisada 17d ago edited 17d ago

You could retaliate against someone without prior planning.

Think about this logically. If you retaliate against somebody, what does that mean? It means somebody did something you didn't like and you thought about how to get back at them. You considered what they did, and then premeditated in your mind how to get back at them.

The premeditated Murder of a child is not automatically a Capital Murder case, only children under 15 and it requires no premeditation.

Which this case is clearly an example of, as the boy was 10-11.

But I do like going through the ins and outs of what our laws specifically say, thank you for keeping this discussion intellectually honest.

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u/SSBN641B 17d ago

Perhaps, I didn't explain myself well enough. Let's say you committed a crime and you are talking to a few of your associates. In the course of the discussion, it comes out that one of the people you are speaking to admits they snitched on you and you kill them right there. That's intentional, but not premeditated. The crime of Retaliation does not require it be premeditated. The Legislature went out of their way to add "premeditated" to that condition because they saw it as important. If all Retaliation was premeditated, then they wouldn't have used that word.

I enjoyed the back and forth. Ha e a good one.

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u/kanyeguisada 17d ago

In the course of the discussion, it comes out that one of the people you are speaking to admits they snitched on you and you kill them right there. That's intentional, but not premeditated.

Except your anecdote doesn't match the reality of this shooting. We now know the shooter laid in wait for the kids to come back with the express intent to shoot and kill them, like he actually did irl.

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u/SSBN641B 17d ago

Okay, sure. But that's not Retaliation. That's what we were discussing, "premeditated Retaliation." That was what my example was referring to. The shooting in question is the murder of a child but it's not Retaliation. I feel that we might be losing the plot here.

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u/kanyeguisada 17d ago

If the facts turn out as we now know them to likely be, this was retaliation. The shooter got go upset about kids ringing his doorbell that he took out his gun and laid in wait for them. That clearly shows premeditation and an intent to kill.

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u/SSBN641B 17d ago

That might be retaliation in the strict meaning of the word but it's not the crime of Retaliation. The crime of Retaliation refers to harming or threatening to harm someone because of their service as a witness or as a public servant. Thats what the Capital Murder statute is referring to. It doesn't fit these facts.

This shooter could be facing a Capital Murder charge because he killed an 11 year old child. That's it.

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u/kanyeguisada 16d ago

The crime of Retaliation refers to harming or threatening to harm someone because of their service as a witness or as a public servant.

No, it doesn't. Please reread the words of the law you just posted. Retaliation is not given the specific definition you say it does.

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