Suitably Flip

The 48-Hour Murder Sentence

Technically, this convicted killer wouldn't have had to serve even those two days, if only the jury had been a little snappier in their deliberations.

Traci Rhode spent two days in jail and will pay $10,000 for the crime of murder.
...
It took jurors two days to deliver their guilty verdict and another three days to sentence Rhode to 10 years supervised release. Judge Ben Euresti tacked on a $10,000 fine to her punishment and she was released from the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center within a few hours.

“(They waited) for two days before they came out with their guilty verdict because they were not sure,” [Rhodes' lawyer] suspects and called his client’s detention during deliberation “cruel and unusual.”

“Can you imagine the shock of being locked-up for two days in a 4-by-8 (foot cell) with cement walls in isolation? What a culture shock,” he said.

The poor dear.  So what did Rhodes do that earned her such draconian Hiltonian punishment?

She has maintained her innocence throughout the trial, claiming Scott Rhode shot himself in their bedroom while she showered after a morning walk.

The prosecutors counter that Traci awoke at about 5 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2003, and shot her husband with a .45-caliber handgun while he slept.

She went jogging around their Briarwick Subdivision neighborhood then took a bath before calling police to report the shooting, they argued.

Scott survived the gunshot wound to the head but died the next day at Valley Regional Medical Center.

“This was a flat out cold-blooded execution,” Villalobos said.

And the jury agreed (they just didn't agree she ought to be punished for it), so we can knock off the "police/prosecutors allege" qualifier.

Prosecutors alleged that Traci killed [Scott] so that she could collect her husband’s life insurance policy and continue an affair with a co-worker.

She is the beneficiary of a $600,000 life and accidental death policy for Scott. It was not clear Thursday who would receive those benefits now that she’s been convicted in his death.

Such farcical leniency was proscribed by the state earlier this year, but Traci killed her husband early enough to be grandfathered into the pay-to-slay fine-only plan.

A new law passed by the Texas Legislature and effective since Sept. 1 prohibits murderers from receiving community supervised release. The law only applies to cases that take place after the effective date.

Comments

The 48-Hour Murder Sentence

Technically, this convicted killer wouldn't have had to serve even those two days, if only the jury had been a little snappier in their deliberations.

Traci Rhode spent two days in jail and will pay $10,000 for the crime of murder.
...
It took jurors two days to deliver their guilty verdict and another three days to sentence Rhode to 10 years supervised release. Judge Ben Euresti tacked on a $10,000 fine to her punishment and she was released from the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center within a few hours.

“(They waited) for two days before they came out with their guilty verdict because they were not sure,” [Rhodes' lawyer] suspects and called his client’s detention during deliberation “cruel and unusual.”

“Can you imagine the shock of being locked-up for two days in a 4-by-8 (foot cell) with cement walls in isolation? What a culture shock,” he said.

The poor dear.  So what did Rhodes do that earned her such draconian Hiltonian punishment?

She has maintained her innocence throughout the trial, claiming Scott Rhode shot himself in their bedroom while she showered after a morning walk.

The prosecutors counter that Traci awoke at about 5 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2003, and shot her husband with a .45-caliber handgun while he slept.

She went jogging around their Briarwick Subdivision neighborhood then took a bath before calling police to report the shooting, they argued.

Scott survived the gunshot wound to the head but died the next day at Valley Regional Medical Center.

“This was a flat out cold-blooded execution,” Villalobos said.

And the jury agreed (they just didn't agree she ought to be punished for it), so we can knock off the "police/prosecutors allege" qualifier.

Prosecutors alleged that Traci killed [Scott] so that she could collect her husband’s life insurance policy and continue an affair with a co-worker.

She is the beneficiary of a $600,000 life and accidental death policy for Scott. It was not clear Thursday who would receive those benefits now that she’s been convicted in his death.

Such farcical leniency was proscribed by the state earlier this year, but Traci killed her husband early enough to be grandfathered into the pay-to-slay fine-only plan.

A new law passed by the Texas Legislature and effective since Sept. 1 prohibits murderers from receiving community supervised release. The law only applies to cases that take place after the effective date.