'Barbarism': Texas judge ordered electric shocks to man during trial. Conviction thrown out.
Source: The Washington Post
In Tarrant County, Tex., defendants are sometimes strapped with a stun belt around their legs. The devices are used to deliver a shock in the event the person gets violent or attempts to escape.
But in the case of Terry Lee Morris, the device was used as punishment for refusing to answer a judges questions properly during his 2014 trial on charges of soliciting sexual performance from a 15-year-old girl, according to an appeals court. In fact, the judge shocked Morris three times, sending thousands of volts coursing through his body. It scared him so much that Morris never returned for the remainder of his trial and almost all of his sentencing hearing.
The action shocked the Texas Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso, too. And it has now thrown out Morriss conviction on the grounds that the shocks, and Morriss subsequent removal from the courtroom, violated his constitutional rights. Since he was too scared to come back to the courtroom, the court held that the shocks effectively barred him from attending his own trial, in violation of the Constitutions Sixth Amendment, which guarantees a defendants right to be present and confront witnesses during a trial.
The ruling, handed down Feb. 28, was reported Tuesday in the Texas Lawyer.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/07/barbarism-texas-judge-ordered-electric-shocks-to-man-during-trial-conviction-thrown-out/
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Wonder why the defendant wanted the judge to recuse himself and why the the judge got so angry that he shocked him and why the case is going back to the same judge. Something stinks here.
femmedem
(8,203 posts)What a horrific abuse of power. (I almost said unbelievable, but nothing's unbelievable anymore.)
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Julian Englis
(2,309 posts)He should be thrown off the bench, disbarred, and charged with assault.
secondwind
(16,903 posts)TomVilmer
(1,832 posts)THE COURT: Are you going to behave?
THE DEFENDANT: I have a history of mental illness.
THE COURT: Hit him again.
(Deputy complies)
Seems like the judge are giving him extra punishment, and nobody will complain since the defendant is an accused child sex offender. But a judge should be above that...
dchill
(38,494 posts)mountain grammy
(26,621 posts)onecent
(6,096 posts)flying_wahini
(6,594 posts)Please don't paint us all with your big brush.
onecent
(6,096 posts)gO blast your critique where they belong!!!!
flying_wahini
(6,594 posts)Not very neighborly. All I said is don't paint everyone with your "critique". Thanks!
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)The insult could as easily have been against liberals in Georgia and often has been.
onecent
(6,096 posts)I only bark at people who get my goat....IT'S DONE now....for me....
Nitram
(22,801 posts)Stuart G
(38,427 posts)mn9driver
(4,425 posts)This piece of shit is a Republican who ran unopposed for his seat.
Stuart G
(38,427 posts)This judge ordering "electric shocks" is the above...
I deeply believe that the founders of this country, and writers of this Constitution and these amendments would define this judge's actions as, "cruel and unusual punishment"
RKP5637
(67,108 posts)Javaman
(62,530 posts)florida does crazy, texas does scary.