Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Hard Core, Right Wing Idiocy

As most of you know by now, former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta was disbarred last week for hiding exculpatory evidence in his Capital Murder prosecution of Anthony Graves.  For those unfamiliar with this sad story, Anthony Graves spent 18 years on Death Row after being prosecuted by Sebesta.  The 5th Circuit overturned his conviction because Sebesta withheld exculpatory evidence and Kelly Siegler was ultimately appointed as the Special Prosecutor to retry Graves.  After reviewing the evidence, Kelly publicly stated that Graves was an innocent man and dismissed the case against him.

The story of Anthony's case is well documented.  It was covered by CBS's 48 Hours and was the subject of several articles (see here and here) by Texas Monthly's Pamela Colloff.  Sebesta responded to his earned public bashing by creating his own website, where he simultaneously defended himself while blasting Kelly Siegler and insisting upon Anthony Graves' guilt.  In April of 2011, I posted this article on him in response to his website.  Sebesta quickly became the poster child for the dirty, evidence-hiding prosecutor.  Ultimately, I think Charles Manson had more supporters than Sebesta.

His disbarment last week was something that was regarded as a small but very righteous event that everyone could support.

Right?

Well, apparently not everybody.

On Tuesday, it was brought to my attention that my article on Sebesta had been cited in this article by columnist Rachel Alexander of the conservative website townhall.com.  Just the title of the article "The Left Disbars Another Conservative Prosecutor" was enough to make me do a double take.  The idea of me being labeled as a leftist member of the media gave me a case of the giggles.  Her statement,  "Most accounts don't attempt to say that Graves was innocent," was just ridiculous.

So, I took to the Twitterverse to engage Ms. Alexander in conversation.  Hilarity ensued.


Seeing that Ms. Alexander's response was clearly well-thought out and not at all silly, I decided that Pamela Colloff might enjoy Ms. Alexander's musings.



And then we started really arguing.



The argument went from bad to worse.


So, um, she left out the fact that the Special Prosecutor (who was arguably one of Texas' most aggressive prosecutors) said that Graves was innocent because she "didn't think it was highly relevant" and then follows it with "We all know she really didn't think that."

Yes, because we all know that Kelly Siegler is constantly saying things that she doesn't mean . . .



At this point, I know I should have disengaged.  Ms. Alexander was clearly immune to logic.  But them Pamela Colloff joined in and it was too entertaining to walk away.  

And then Pamela delivered the message that I should have just realized before even engaging with Ms. Alexander.


I had actually started off the Twitter-dialogue with Ms. Alexander in hopes of showing her what Charles Sebesta really was and pointing out to her that even the most conservative ideology wouldn't support what he did.  Clearly, I failed in that, but it did make for an entertaining afternoon.













12 comments:

Anonymous said...

More importantly... Can we discuss her hair in that twitter profile pic?!

Unknown said...

Wow! I knew you were a leftist!

Tom said...

So, a retired lawyer loses his ticket. For him, other than embarassment it isn't a big deal.
Now may be the time to indict him for the attempted murder of Anthony Graves. It wouildn't be hard to argue to a jury that Sabesta did an act more than mere preparation and that he intended to unlawfully cause Graves's death.

Anonymous said...

Hey,
The Fifth Circuit finally ruled on the Wong/Culbertson/Lykos/Palmer case!
"The dismissal of Culbertson and Wong's claims against Harris County that it ratified Palmer's and Lykos's alleged retaliatory campaign is REVERSED. The dismissal of tortious interference with a contract claim is REVERSED. The dismissal claims due to TCPA is REVERSED, and the award of attorney's fees is REVERSED. In all other respects, including the dismissal of retaliation claims against Palmer in her individual capacity the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED." So, for now RPH is off the hook individually for retaliation. Also for now no attorney fees for Palmer. I am sure Don will have a full explanation soon.

Anonymous said...

Chron has a story on the 3:39 post. So Lykos settled in her individual capacity back in 2013. Did not know that.

Jason Truitt said...

You mean, you knew you should have disengaged, but just couldn't?

I think my job here is done.

Anonymous said...

Don will craft a thought-provoking analysis of the appellate ruling when RP gets home from work and teaches him how to spell "mad".

Anonymous said...

Houston Press has a story on the appellate ruling too. I think the county may have to write a check on this one.

DPPooper said...

It be ok. Rahcel wull pleed the fith for tortoise inference.

Anonymous said...

A quick google search explains why this idiot is so reflexively supportive of Sebesta- she's another unethical former prosecutor who claimed she was railroaded by the liberals after she got caught. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20120410thomas-aubuchon-stripped-their-legal-licenses.html

Murray Newman said...

Wow. And her attorney even asserted the Nuremburg Defense!

Anonymous said...

Imagine what these nuts would say if Cameron Todd Willingham was still alive and received a fair trial.

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