In Texas, man gets 4 mos. for killing wife, 15 yrs for wounding man

[ahem]

From CNN:

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- A man sentenced to just four months in prison for killing his wife, after a jury concluded he acted in a blind fury, drew a 15-year term for wounding her boyfriend.

Jimmy Dean Watkins pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted murder for shooting Keith Fontenot on December 22, 1998. Watkins' estranged wife, Nancy, was killed with multiple gunshots as she tried to dial 911 during the attack.

The jury at his 1999 trial found Watkins guilty of murdering his wife but decided he acted with "sudden passion" when he discovered her with Fontenot.

In a decision that provoked an outcry, the jury recommended 10 years' probation. Because of the jury's recommendation, the most the judge could have given Watkins was six months behind bars. He sentenced Watkins to four months.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/06/jealous.husband.ap/index.html

[LisaL]

1. And yet another nutty story from Texas.

Does anyone normal live there, or are they all insane?

[TahitiNut]

20. "nutty"? (hmph!)

You make that sound like a bad thing. :silly:


"Jurors said they recommended probation because they didn't think Watkins could be rehabilitated in prison."

rehabilitated

in Texas


bwahHAHAHAH! :dunce:

[Robert Oak]

2. yet another milestone in womens rights...backwards n/t

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Out-fucking-rageous

[Coventina]

4. Get ready for another "Burning Times"

It's coming for sure....another war against women....

[Robert Oak]

11. but make sure u save the baby 1st! (sic) n/t

[Florida_Geek]

5. I checked but could not find a pictures but

I am just guessing this is a good old white boy.

[davidinalameda]

6. interesting sense of justice in Texas

10 years probation?

[DS1]

7. There's that Passion thing again

The Passion of the Trigger

[d_b]

8. W T F is going on out in looney land?

[w4rma]

12. Maybe there is something in the water down there.

Too many contaminents make them stupid?

[Anakin Skywalker]

15. What are you talking about?

Hey! Corporations are supposed to be good guys, according to the TX rednecks.

Heh heh. :)

[VegasWolf]

34. You can only whack your head with a bible so many times before

permanent brain damage occurs.

[MsAnthropy]

9. And he got the death penalty for stealing the man's gun

[sakabatou]

10. What the

I think they got it backwards...

[bunkerbuster1]

29. Didja hear the one about the REALY stupid Texas judge?

Ok, there's a punchline somewhere.

[sakabatou]

32. He walked into a bar?

Ouch.

[malachi]

43. Really and stupid,redundant. All that is needed is texas judge.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. Shows the way Texas really values life.

Too bad she wasn't pregnant at the time. If she had been he probably would have gotten the death penalty.

[Patchuli]

14. I noted that she was his 'estranged' wife

therefore, they split up. I don't buy the crime of passion crap.

[Anakin Skywalker]

16. Exactly.

I don't understand the country/redneck mentality at all (of the Texan jury, in this case). Maybe they really do believe women are PROPERTIES, as most rethugs do.

[LisaL]

17. WTF is the crime of passion anyway?

Maybe when Andrea Yates gets out, she and this man can get together? They will make a lovely couple.

[Shakespeare]

18. It's only until recently in TX that wives were considered a man's PROPERTY

The laws were changed, but the mindset remains.

[musette_sf]

19. this judge needs to wake up

since he has been sleeping since 1984 IIRC. I moved to TX in 1984, and found it apallingly hilarious (is there such a thing?) at the time that they had JUST repealed the "crime of passion" defense.

I think this was right after they decided that it was okay to serve liquor by the drink in Houston.

Texas is the state of hypocrites. Ivins, Hightower and Richards notwithstanding.

[DavidDvorkin]

21. Don't blame judge

The Crime of Passion law has been on the books in Texas for a long time.

It was originally written to cover men who killed their wives when they discovered them with other men. Some years ago, a woman killed her husband when she found him with another woman, and the courts held that the law had to apply equally to women. So Texas is a bastion of equal rights!

[LisaL]

22. And apparently the best state to kill your husband/wife, and

get away with it. And now you can even get away with murdering your children. Oh, what a life!

[musette_sf]

24. COP law was overturned

in the 80s.

[LisaL]

26. Well, how can it be overturned, if this guy just got off because of it?

[musette_sf]

27. that's a question

to be posed on appeal, I suppose. I recall this clearly because the change in the law had just happened when I moved to Texas. Sorry, but I'm not doing a good job of googling it right now.

[Fleshdancer]

23. too bad she wasn't pregnant. he'd probably get the death penalty

:grr:

Americans judge other countries for treating women as second class citizens and what do we do? Well this article just says it all, doesn't it? We get on our high horse about the woman who was stoned to death in Iran and yet Nancy gets gunned down in this country, the land of the "free", and apparently its OK.

It makes me sick to my stomach that I have to fight tooth and nail so that my daughter doesn't lose the rights that my mother fought so hard for me to have. How dare they.

First it was making late term abortions illegal even if a woman's life was in danger. Next it will be all forms of abortion and probably all forms of reproductive rights including birth control. Then the Title IX fight will come back up (AGAIN!), then we'll begin to see the unraveling of discrimination laws. We're going in that direction. We focus on Gay Rights when the reality is that ALL civil rights are under attack. It's only a matter of time.

[ahem]

25. You're right...

pregnancy would have changed the sentence, I truly believe it. On her own, she just wasnt' worth it to the jury.

[iverglas]

28. from one of my favourite Brit cop series ...

The woman cop on the team, outraged and frustrated at the fact that a senior cop was being permitted to plead guilty to manslaughter in what was obviously the coldly calculated murder of his wife, wrote on the blackboard:

manslaughter
MAN'S LAUGHTER

The idea that "sudden passion" justifies a man's killing of a woman (but not attempt to kill a man, apparently), and the knowledge that this idea is sanctioned by law and by those of one's fellow human beings who apply it in cases like this and many more, makes one about as bitter as the tears that character wept as she wrote it.

[RedCloud]

57. Some connection to therapist?

manslaughter
MAN'S LAUGHTER

Sounds like:
therapist
THE RAPIST

[iverglas]

59. well ...

manslaughter
MAN'S LAUGHTER

Sounds like:
therapist
THE RAPIST

Both should be qualified by "sometimes", I guess.

Both are perfectly legitimate at other times, of course.
Circumstances and noses and all that. ;)

[NYC]

30. I guess women don't count as human beings.

The jury wanted probation. The judge sentenced him to only 4 of the possible 6 months.

People go to prison for a lot less. Crime of passion? No, women as less than human.

[frustrated_lefty]

31. Thank god they didn't have a child.

Either the mother would have drowned or decapitated it, or the child would have grown up retarded and been sentenced to the death penalty.

[Rose Siding]

33. They did have a son

And he ISN'T "retarded"

snip>
The Watkinses' son, Eric, now 16, glared at his father in court Wednesday and testified that he wished his last memory of his mother was not seeing her dying on the kitchen floor.

"I will never call you Dad again," the boy, now Eric Braley, told Watkins. A year after his mother's death, he was adopted by his former school counselor and her husband.

[progressoid]

35. WWWW TTTT FFFF????

[American Tragedy]

36. But this is second-degree murder, by definition.

How the hell can you get probation or a few months in prison for that?

I heard of a woman in a very similar situation who was sentenced twenty years to life imprisonment.

[clem_c_rock]

37. I'm sorry but why do DUers have to post this sh**??????

I'm sure we could fit the entire DU LBN pages w/ stories like this from the headlines of every local newspaper and just spend our time discussing Jerry Springer stories.

Maybe if everyone feels so inclined to follow these posts DU should make a Springer forum.

Thanks for wasting our time.

[Fleshdancer]

38. The ability to kill your wife makes for a worthy story in my opinion

but maybe that's just because I'm just a married woman living in TX. :shrug:

[clem_c_rock]

39. Yes - but there is a story like this in practically every local paper

And I'm not trying to say this isn't a pressing topic. So was the Laci Peterson case. I just think if we pack DU LBN w/ this stuff it will be rather sad.

[Southern Dem 2005]

40. Not a typical story

Its not very often that you can shoot your wife multiple times and get 4 months in prison. Very few states follow the "sudden passion" rule any more. Its interesting in how it protrays the Texas justice system as being pretty backwards. The fact that you can still use this defense in court should be of concern.

[clem_c_rock]

41. I will give you that - I have too seen other posts such as this that

didn't show anything more than to post a shocking story w/ no point deeper point than shock value.

[stanwyck]

50. You can't change bad law

if you don't know it exists. Most people wouldn't believe that a man who committed murder would get a sentence of 4 months. Maybe that's OK with you. But for people who want a more just system, this is relevant.

[Southern Dem 2005]

56. Agreed

[Rose Siding]

62. Then don't click the link

It is a story worth noting. Thank god some of this crap still shocks us.

[Fleshdancer]

61. Your logic scares the crap out of me

This woman was someone's daughter and mother. The court gave a clear message that robbing a convenient store or possessing cocaine was a bigger crime than killing this woman. I hope like hell this story isn't in every local paper. Sure there's more than a small handful of stories of men killing their wives (for reasons I will never understand) but hopefully they'll be locked up in prison longer than 4 months.

[Skittles]

42. another man who doesn't get it, Gloria

argh

[DFWJock]

44. A BigD Texas "HOWDY"

from here in MoralityVille. Hopefully, no stem cells were hurt in these events. That's what really matters.

[William Bloode]

45. I woulda let him off.

Seriously i would have. I know in my heart if i caught my wife and another man in the same bed, they could continue their affair in the ground.Sorry but i have no sympathy for marital infidelity.

[Rose Siding]

46. Is she your property? Does personal accountability not extend to you?

[William Bloode]

49. Sorry....?

I have no qualms about it. I happen to take my marriage very seriously, always have. And i am not saying i would do it in good spirits, but i know me, and i know my temper. My mind would tell me they have to go, and they sure would.

Same goes for anyone who ever lays a finger on one of my childeren, they better hope they see me before i get to them.....that'd be their only chance.

Because yes, i know it will enrage a few of you, but there are some things only a bullet will cure.

[MisterP]

47. I have even less sympathy for KILLING SOMEONE

[lukasahero]

48. Yes, but they didn't "let him off" for injuring the guy, did they???

The problem I have with the story is that he KILLED his (ex?) wife and got 4 months but he got 15 YEARS for injuring the boyfriend. Anybody else have a little teensy bit of a f*cking problem with that, or is it just me?

WTF is wrong with people?

[William Bloode]

51. Thats why i said he should have....

Gotten off period. I think he shoulda got more for the wife than the man since they gave him some time. But as i mentioned i would not have given him a day. Maybe a little bit of time in a mental facility to get his mind in better shape.

[Stuckinthebush]

52. Sorry...

that's just insane.

I guess you would support her doing the same to you?

[William Bloode]

53. Hahaha of course!

If you go ask my wife right now "what would you do if you caught your ol' man in bed with another woman?" Her reply would be a simple "i'd kill him" I've got no problem with it.

[Rose Siding]

54. Do your children know you'd murder their mother?

Or that she'd kill you? Do they know that you place a higher value on your potential for rage than on their happiness?; a higher value on your insecurity than on the life of another?

How do they feel about that?

[fishwax]

58. If you're wife just wants to leave, can you kill her then, too?

I've never heard anybody actually argue a case like this as justifiable homicide. And I wouldn't've dreamed that I would see the argument on DU.

[iverglas]

60. and what's sympathy

... got to do with it?

I know in my heart if i caught my wife and another man in the same bed, they could continue their affair in the ground. Sorry but i have no sympathy for marital infidelity.

Is the concept of THE RULE OF LAW that foreign to so many people?

I have no sympathy for people who wear nailpolish. I guess now I get to off as many of them as I want, knowing that a jury will take my lack of sympathy for them into consideration and find me only a tiny bit to blame for what I do.

Lots of people have no sympathy for people who drive SUVs. (Nailpolish, by the way, is vile toxic waste.) Maybe, as long as no one is hurt, there should be no punishment all all for blowing up SUVs.

Here's how it works.

You may despise anyone you like, as much as you like.

You may not harm anyone, for any reason, unless you have justification or excuse.

Justification is not a matter of personal opinion. It is a matter of social consensus. These days, our consensus is pretty much that one is only justified in harming someone else if doing so appears to be the only available way of preventing serious harm to one's self (or, in the case of warfare, to one's group). That is: in self-defence.

Proposing that one's lack of "sympathy" for someone is justification for injuring or killing him/her is really just not quite liberal or progressive, and I doubt very much that it's Democratic.

And a society that accepts that proposition is barbaric beyond belief.

[Fleshdancer]

63. I'll sleep well knowing you're not a Judge.

sick. absolutely sick.

[RedCloud]

55. if he drowned his own kids,,,

he would probably get off scot (but not Scott Peterson) free.
or maybe there is a gender issue there.

[rainbow4321]

64. This Texas guy got longer for killing his dog than the wife killer did!

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/010804dnmetchihuahua.11475.html

A 25-year-old Dallas man was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for mutilating and killing a small dog, apparently in retaliation for $100 worth of drugs he believed was owed to him.

Ray Cornelius Perkerson, who also was ordered by state District Judge Mark Nancarrow to pay a $2,500 fine, had pleaded guilty and sought probation for the crime, which was committed in April during a burglary of a Pleasant Grove apartment.

Because the burglary occurred during another felony, the animal cruelty, Mr. Perkerson faced the possibility of life in prison. Four years ago, the Texas Legislature made certain acts of animal cruelty a felony.

Mr. Perkerson did not testify Friday, but his lawyer and parents argued that the violent attack on the animal was out of character for him and that he needed help to fight a drug habit, rather than a prison sentence.