this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
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[–] Hux@lemmy.ml 158 points 1 day ago (22 children)

This reads like it never even went to trial. The article says a jury “failed to indict” and the man was “never charged”.

I’m assuming it was a grand jury and somehow a bare majority or jurors couldn’t find cause to charge the man (who—at minimum—pointed a gun at his daughter’s chest and pulled the trigger) with any crime whatsoever.

Not a single charge or trial?

How?

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Grand jury. What little I've read keeps saying they tried for manslaughter. Also from what I've read, based on the dad's own statements he's clearly guilty of a number of crimes that aren't manslaughter. So it's possible there's some nazi-esque camaraderie here and the prosecutor intentionally flopped to get no charges. I'm not exactly sure how grand juries work on that front. Could they have tried for a lower level charge, then once the rest of the investigation uncovers things they just bump the charge up to the appropriate level of would they need to reconvene a grand jury? Could the grand jury have considered multiple levels of charges?

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Grand juries are different than trial juries in Texas. They're nominated "respectable" members of society that serve terms for multiple months. It's remnants of Jim Crow that are alive and well, where rich white guys decide who gets prosecuted for what.

And Texas made it even worse a few years back. In 2008, a white guy called 911 because police his neighbor's house was being robbed. He indicated that the neighbor's were not home, and also that he was gonna shoot the burglars. The dispatch told him over a dozen times not to interfere, and he repeatedly said he would shoot them. As plainclothes police were arriving on scene, dispatch told him they were arriving, but he went ahead and shot the 2 unarmed burglars in the back while.they were fleeing, killing both. They happened to be unarmed.

The grand jury refused to indict him for a crime, but the familes sued the murderer in civil court and won.

So Texas made a law that if someone is not convicted of a felony for a gun crime they can't be sued in civil court over it.

[–] Brummbaer@pawb.social 7 points 1 day ago

I knew that the US justice system was bad, but I at least hoped that some crimes would have to be trialed in court.

Thanks for the explanation.

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