Leading Off
1. A 17th Dallas County man will likely be exonerated today after DNA tests showed that James Lee Woodard was not the man who sexually assaulted and killed a woman in December 1980.
2. SMU President Gerald Turner has rejected a proposal to open a pub on campus, which I’m very happy about. I don’t want those co-ed party girls getting hammered on campus on Friday nights. Their Daddies wouldn’t like that. They should do what they normally do on the weekend: Kick it with Old Man Celeste on the KSP dancefloor. Next thing ya know, shawty got low, low, low, low!
3. The Dallas Mavericks had a players-only practice yesterday, while Avery curled up in the fetal position under a footstool and spoke lovingly to his championship ring. Not that the wheels are coming off. Not at all.
12 Comments to “Leading Off”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
3. giggle
18th exoneration I believe, but I’m losing count
Why have a George W. Bush library on campus if you’re not going to supply the students with the liquid means to forget it exists?
As to #1:
I remember the concept of prosecutorial immunity from law school, but surly there was an exception for aggregious, willful misconduct? Just how far do we allow a DAs office to go? Could someone please hold someone accountable for all this mess?
And, I’m all in favor of righting wrongs, as is the case 18 times over here, but I can just see the Republican challenger’s TV ads in a few years on Watson being soft on crime and freeing criminals all over town. I’m hoping he’s not a one-term DA myself, but I have to wonder if he’s doing anything to show how “tough” he is on actual criminals (and if he’s trying to get media attention of it) at the same time he’s freeing innocent people. It couldn’t hurt him come re-election time.
Or surely - whatever.
LoC: Good point from a political standpoint, and I believe some in the DA’s office itelf would agree with you. But, with all due respect, screw that. When it comes time to meet your Maker, if the best thing you can say is I freed innocent people, and the worst thing you can say is I didn’t play the political game well, I think you’re doing okay.
I completely agree with you on that - certainly as far as who’s doing the right thing, it’s Watkins and his posse, and he might have an easier time getting through the pearly gates than the ones who created the work for him in the first place.
But that doesn’t keep him in office for longer than one term, and while our ultimate destination should always be the focus, we’re also stuck for the time being dealing with the here and the now, and I’d just like to see him remain DA for longer than one term to continue to accomplish what he’s accomplishing. If putting together a few initiatives to show he’s tough on crime while also being fair to defendants would help with that, then his team ought to be figuring out how to make that happen.
Dear Mark Cuban:
You’re a week too late. I’m off to Charlotte.
LB
Where’s the righteously indignant blogging against CPS now that 31 teen mothers have been discovered among the 53 teen girls at the West Texas FLDS compound?
Ditto, Sean. The silence is deafening.
I think I’ve been pretty consistent on this. I haven’t blogged or commented on that FLDS compound story, because I don’t care.
Just had a geezer moment…memories of the Knox Street Pub when it was on Knox Street and the first bar I ever had a drink in as a 16 year old and visiting my older sister in Dallas…not so many SMU students there in those days.