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Originally Posted by RACooper
You've got to be shitting me.... why hasn't the federal or state governments stepped in? Is there something I'm not getting here about juristiction or some local autonomy laws preventing direct involvement by state or federal officials?
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My guess is that there's some very relevant material not being presented by the newspaper. For example, Ms. Cotton could have been coerced into a full confession to the crime of "assault on a public servant," which in Texas is a class 3 felony, punishable by between 2 and 10 years in the pokey.
The arson convict could have been represented by counsel from the get-go, not confessed and had a reasonably ok defense. Texas law allows the crime of arson in her circumstances to be prosecuted as a "state jail felony" or even a "class A" misdemeanor. The state jail felony would only carry up to 2 years while the misdemeanor might not even involve significant jail time.
It is possible that race wasn't a factor here and that money was.
As many cases as judges hear over a career, it would probably be pretty easy to take the outcome of one case which came out in a manner very palatable to the defendant and another showing an unfair or shocking outcome. The article only shows that this has happened. One outcome was defendant friendly, one was shocking. Not that there is a systemic problem in Paris, Texas which is anything more egregious than the rest of America where monied people will almost always receive a better outcome in the criminal system than the impecunious.
What gets me is the prosecutor's choice to apply that statute. It seems crafted to apply to individuals who the defendant knows are charged with upholding the law. It seems similar to assaulting a police officer. It seems unreasonable to me to say that an assault on a school official should carry such a substantially higher penalty than assault on someone not acting in some official capacity. That was the Texas legislature's decision to make though... I just wonder if this was the outcome they would have wanted.
While the article is very obviously one-sided, I think this outcome at least merits an investigation. The U.S. Department of Education is currently investigating the school system. I'd like to see some inquiry made into the prosecutor's office as well.
I still think it's going to be pretty difficult to determine whether this is a case of racial discrimination or a case of prosecutors taking advantage of those who are unable to secure adequate legal representation.
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