Conviction overturned for man electrocuted by Texas judge

[chriswebb]

Reading that headline you might think that this was a death penalty case. Then getting to the article you see, that it was with a stun "belt". So naturally you assume that the judge must be in jail for killing someone... Then you realize the defendant is still alive, and that the bbc editor who approved that headline doesn't know what electrocute means...

A Texas appeals court has overturned a man's conviction after finding a judge had inappropriately electrocuted him in court, US media report.
Terry Lee Morris was convicted of soliciting sexual performance from a child and was sentenced to 60 years.

Judge George Gallagher ordered the bailiff to activate a stun belt sending 50,000 volts through Morris when he allegedly refused to answer questions.

The higher court found that stun belts cannot be used as punishment in court.

Mr Morris appealed his 2014 conviction alleging that his constitutional rights were violated when the judge used the belt as punishment for not answering questions properly.

The belts - used by courtrooms such as the one Tarrant County in Texas - are affixed around the legs or midsection of a suspect in court and are used to deliver a shock to the person should they become violent.

Mr Morris said he was too scared to return to court out of more electrical shocks, the Texas Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso heard.

The appeals court ruled on 28 February that Mr Morris' shocks and removal from the court was a violation of his constitutional right to be present and confront witnesses during his trial. The decision was first reported by the Texas Lawyer news website on Tuesday.

He has now been ordered to stand for a new trial.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43307797

[sokoloff]

Several dictionaries list the definition as "injure or kill by electricity". Others take the hardline only "kill by electricity" definition.

[tooki]

Several dictionaries list the definition as "injure or kill by electricity". Others take the hardline only "kill by electricity" definition.

Yes, it's true that colloquially it's come to mean any electric shock. But the word "electrocute" is, after all, a portmanteau of "electricity" and "execute", so a journalist (and the court!) should know better!



As for the subject matter itself, it defies belief, doesn't it?? Here is what I posted on Facebook earlier today, linking to an article in the Washington Post, which goes into a great deal more detail than BBC:

It absolutely boggles the mind that the following quote should have reason to exist:

This Court cannot sit idly by and say nothing when a judge turns a court of law into a Skinner Box, electrocuting a defendant until he provides the judge with behavior he likes.

Now, justice has been served for the defendant, but what discipline or sanctions will the judge face???

[chriswebb]

The main problem is the fact the headline with the word electrocute implies that this article is a death penalty case when they needed to be explicit.

edit: Also couldn't decide whether or not this was appropriate for the forum, but I went ahead due to how messed up the actual story was, they didn't need to embellish it with the word electrocute.

[rsjsouza]

Several dictionaries list the definition as "injure or kill by electricity". Others take the hardline only "kill by electricity" definition.

Yes, it's true that colloquially it's come to mean any electric shock. But the word "electrocute" is, after all, a portmanteau of "electricity" and "execute", so a journalist (and the court!) should know better!

Not colloquially only: Merriam Webster defines it as both for accidents with fatal or injury consequences, although for inmates it has a second definition exclusive for a fatal consequence.

IMO it's not necessarily fault of the journalist.

[3db]

The main problem is the fact the headline with the word electrocute implies that this article is a death penalty case when they needed to be explicit.

edit: Also couldn't decide whether or not this was appropriate for the forum, but I went ahead due to how messed up the actual story was, they didn't need to embellish it with the word electrocute.

I'd have thought the main problem was that nutter being a judge.

3DB

[Ranayna]

I'm sure a headline like that was not chosen by accident. And it seems to have been successful You read the article, and a couple of other people here now have read the article, who, like me, would otherwise never have done so. They got their advertisement hits.

[tszaboo]

There is a no politics policy on this forum.

[Simon]

The BBC are extremely lax in their understanding of technical matters and the experts they often bring in give clueless and superficial explanations. they are these days just another media organisation.

[Simon]

There is a no politics policy on this forum.

we've not got there yet but yes if this gets political it will be locked.

[VK3DRB]

The BBC are extremely lax in their understanding of technical matters and the experts they often bring in give clueless and superficial explanations. they are these days just another media organisation.

I listen to the BBC World Service every day and the presenters are pretty technically illiterate as are some of the guests. Some guests are very technically literate though. But we had this woman, our so-called Minister for Information Technology in Australia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Coonan. Technically, she had no idea what she was talking about. Quote, verbatim when interviewed in the ABC: "The country people get 1 megabit and city people get 10 megabits". A typical 10 year old would know more about technology. 

Who knows how such an unqualified person get get such a senior position. Not everyone can be technically literate in life, but when you have someone who is technically clueless leading a country in technology, you have a problem.

[StuUK]

Who knows how such an unqualified person get get such a senior position.

Lol, you must live on another planet from me

[Simon]

I'm sure a headline like that was not chosen by accident. And it seems to have been successful You read the article, and a couple of other people here now have read the article, who, like me, would otherwise never have done so. They got their advertisement hits.

The BBC have fallen victim to the use of click bait particularly on facebook and like my local rag will also refer to any depression in a road as a "sink hole".

[StuUK]

I'm sure a headline like that was not chosen by accident. And it seems to have been successful You read the article, and a couple of other people here now have read the article, who, like me, would otherwise never have done so. They got their advertisement hits.

The BBC have fallen victim to the use of click bait particularly on facebook and like my local rag will also refer to any depression in a road as a "sink hole".

Fair to say the quality of the BBC has declined significantly....

[tooki]

As I showed in the actual quote from the court decision, the court used the word "electrocute".

Regardless, that's all a distraction from the point: WTF was that judge thinking, using the shock collar ankle bracelets like that? Insanity!

[GreyWoolfe]

Who knows how such an unqualified person get get such a senior position. Not everyone can be technically literate in life, but when you have someone who is technically clueless leading a country in technology, you have a problem.

Very simple, The Peter Principle--Managers rise to the level of their incompetence.

[Bassman59]

As I showed in the actual quote from the court decision, the court used the word "electrocute".

Regardless, that's all a distraction from the point: WTF was that judge thinking, using the shock collar ankle bracelets like that? Insanity!

It's par for the course for Texas.

[tpowell1830]

As I showed in the actual quote from the court decision, the court used the word "electrocute".

Regardless, that's all a distraction from the point: WTF was that judge thinking, using the shock collar ankle bracelets like that? Insanity!

It's par for the course for Texas.

Are you from Texas, just wondering why you would say that.

[GreyWoolfe]

I hope he enjoys his freedom.  Curious as to how long it takes for family members of the child to make him permanently 'disappear'.  Texas is a big state after all.

[Cyberdragon]

You can be electrocuted and live...

If your heart stops then you're technically "dead" (there is some medical term shenanigans between this and "brain dead"), but you can still be resuscitated.

That's probably not what happened here though...

[Simon]

UK first aid states that dead is dead and there is no revival from that, if you are "brought back to life by the kiss of life bla bla bla" you were not dead, news papers and the general public often get this wrong. your brain is the bit that dies approximately 2 minutes after blood does not deliver more oxygen after that it can no longer control the heart and make it pump blood/oxygen to the brain so the self sustaining cycle is over and so is life.

[Cyberdragon]

I found it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_death

EDIT: When you can't be resuscitated it's called "legal death".

See...shenanigans...

[julianhigginson]

I hope he enjoys his freedom.  Curious as to how long it takes for family members of the child to make him permanently 'disappear'.  Texas is a big state after all.

don't worry..

"He has now been ordered to stand for a new trial."

just because the case has been thrown out doesn't mean the guy is free!
He would be awaiting the new trial immediately.
Probably in the same prison cell, still.

Not sure how any opinions on a judge summarily punishing a defendant during a trial with high voltage electrical shocks fits into the area of "politics" anyway - thinking that's at all acceptable isn't a political position, it's the position of someone who understands nothing of the requirements for civil society or basic fundamentals of western law.