Texas Grand Jury Declines to Indict Pot Grower Who Shot and Killed a Cop During an Early-Morning Raid

Discussion in 'Marijuana News' started by claygooding, Feb 8, 2014.

  1. \tTexas Grand Jury Declines to Indict Pot Grower Who Shot and Killed a Cop During an Early-Morning Raid\nThis week a Texas grand jury declined to indict a marijuana grower for shooting and killing a sheriff's deputy who burst into his home in the early morning to execute a search warrant. Henry Goedrich Magee, who was indicted on drug and weapon charges (the latter only because he was growing marijuana), said he believed Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders was a burglar. "This was a terrible tragedy that a deputy sheriff was killed, but Hank Magee believed that he and his pregnant girlfriend were being robbed," Magee's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, told A.P. "He did what a lot of people would have done. He defended himself and his girlfriend and his home."
    DeGuerin, a well-known defense attorney who has been practicing for half a century, said "he could not immediately remember another example of a Texas grand jury declining to indict a defendant in the death of a law enforcement officer." That sort of outcome is rare not just in Texas but throughout the country, since people who shoot cops invading their homes usually do not get the same benefit of the doubt as cops do when the roles are reversed. (Just ask Cory Maye.) This double standard is reflected in the reaction from the local district attorney
    <blockquote>Julie Renken, the district attorney for Burleson County, said in a statement Thursday she thought the sheriff's office acted correctly during events that "occurred in a matter of seconds amongst chaos."
    "I believe the evidence also shows that an announcement was made," Renken said. "However, there is not enough evidence that Mr. Magee knew that day that Peace Officers were entering his home."
    </blockquote>If there was not enough evidence that Magee knew Sowders was a cop rather than an armed robber, why did Renken try to indict Magee for capital murder? It was the police, not Magee, who created the "chaos" in which Sowders was killed. His death is doubly senseless: because violence is not an appropriate response to cultivation of an arbitrarily proscribed plant and because, even if we take pot prohibition as a given, there is no need to enforce it by breaking down people's doors while they are sleeping, a tactic that inevitably results in tragedies like this one.
    \nThere are more conference calls between DA's,legislator and the governor because when a   pot growing cop killer isn't indicted by a Grand Jury,,it is as good as a nullification,,politically,,they just let us start shooting back,,in TX you have the right to resist an illegal arrest,,but you better have a Baptist preacher,a Catholic priest annd a Rabbi in the car  or house,
    With pot involved you would have included all their church members and two homeless goats on the grill.,,and the AG doing the cooking
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  2. Logic? In MY COURT SYSTEM?!!?


    But seriously, good to see people realizing no knock raids are a terrible idea.

    I mean its the middle of the night, and you barge into someones house with no explanation? And youre surprised you got shot? Seems pretty fucking obvious that youre just asking to be shot in that situation
     
  3. Maybe they will think twice before busting someone's door down..
     
    Nope, probably not.
     
  4. Bout fucking time!
     
  5. #5 Buddy Jackstraw, Feb 8, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 8, 2014
    Even if someone busts down your door and yells "POLICE!" or whatever does that mean you just take their word for it? Um no.
     
  6.  
     
    I know a guy who got tied up and robbed just like that . They busted in tied him up and was screaming " Atlanta Police " the whole time .After he was forced to the ground at gun point they tied him up and took loads of things from his house .
     
  7. A tiny bit of sanity about cannabis in Texas?     :eek:   Will wonders never cease?  
     
     
    Granny
     
  8. Happens to alot of big time dealers, as scummy as it sounds my city has an entire street of people of do just exactly that for a living (gotta love rican's). Pretty messed up
     
  9. The trouble is it probably was the police,,just an under cover bust they forgot to mention down at the precinct
     
  10. My grandma's from oregon and she's told me her friends were raided the cops took the plans money and 50k in lights. no arrests 
     
  11. Called a smash and grab. Feds do it all the time. Fuckin asset forfeiture.
     
  12. Powerful news, this sets a big precedent.
     
  13. One of my old dealers got robbed by some dudes with shotguns that yelled, "Police" as they entered.  My buddy thought is was the cops and put his hands up instead of grabbing his gun. 
     
    My family has a lot of cops in it and they all say that its stupid how they execute search warrants.  First they think the drug war is stupid, and that if there is a search warrant they should arrest the person off their property and then gain access to their house when its vacant. 
     
  14. I wish I was a fly on the wall in  
     
     
    It isn't the street cops unless they are using marijuana arrests right at shift change because grants :can be used for overtime in drug arrests,,easily determined by looking at his arrest record and see how many marijuana arrests and their times,,3>4 arrests could end up increasing his  income by thousands of dollars yearly.
     
    http://us-government-grants.net/law-enforcement-grants/
     
    this is what bought police support for DA's and Police Chiefs ,,DA's approve the funding uses and PCs and Sheriffs get armored Humvees to show kids what they will use to run through  their home if they smoke a joint,,or a neighbor thinks you did,or heard you did,,or you  were thinking about it.
     
    The next "3rd way is already being discussed,,,http://oversight.house.gov/hearing/mixed-signals-administrations-policy-marijuana/
     
    Since private investors haven't built the rehab centers needed to take care of 750,ooo marijuana arrests,,we can only rehab appx 20,ooo on the best states and some states 2,000 or less so since LE grants have locked LE on a government teat they are preparing grants for states,,to build the rehab centers and instead of  arrests it will be how many rehab centers that open up....states that have decriminalized may stiffen laws to get in on the "free ".guvment money,,welcome to evil 101 and the only way to fight it is to  get more states to legalize,,even  the  bait of free money may stop all legislative discussions,,if congress fast tracks it a lot of states with no ballot initiative will be locked into prohibition even more tightly.because it will be in place before any campaigning starts and even if we vote them out of office it still won'y stop the funding until the nect legislative session,,and by then even  states will have copycats of NIDA in their capitols 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I wish I had a bug in the next Sheriffs Assn meeting.
     

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  15.  
     
    I understand your thinking . But I really think your over thinking this whole thing .
     
  16. at the hearing ONDCP's last few minutes is talking about getting state governments on board with the grants programs and hoping Congress gives the funds to  start setting up the program,,
    The GAO reported the ONDCP has failed to even set up a foundation to begin changing from incarceration to rehab and the economy,,ONDCP solution is what Bonetelli  told us,,not much thinking to  do,,take  the evilest policy they can  think of and double the harms prohibition wreaks on our society and buy more Vaseline.
     
  17. This is fucking brilliant! Don't feel bad for the bacon at all! For one he was raiding for something that shouldn't even be illegal. It is about time a judge recognize property rights over police rights in this country.
     

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