Or is everyone's county totally convinced that if you get hit you had it coming no matter what the evidence shows?

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Did you have it coming?
Maybe it's cultural, but the folks here in Texas really don't seem to care much about what the law says. We do love the idea of self defense - even if it may seem extreme in the light of our prosecutorial eyes.

I had a jury walk a guy one time for shooting a guy who walked up to his car after the defendant almost ran the victim off the road. The defendant said he "thought" the victim may have had a gun. The victim did have a small can of pepper spray with him. Oh, did I mention that the defendant was totally wasted, too? Thank God the victim lived.

I had another case where the victim (who really was a jerk) got in a fistfight in a bar parking lot and ended up getting sliced all too smithereens. I guess the jury thought he deserved it, too. There was a conviction for assault with bodily injury.

When I was a misdemeanor prosecutor, just about every bar fight got rejected. That's just Saturday night sport. Because I am "long in tooth", as they say, I can pretty much understand that "boys will be boys", and a good fist fight, in the eyes of jurors, doesn't justify criminal prosecution.

This looks like a good place to share the Three Unwritten Rules of Texas Jurisprudence:

1) When it comes to the truth, blood is always thicker than water.

2) Sin ain't sin if good people do it.

3) No horse ever needed stealin', but some people do need killin'.

I don't know who first edumacated me 'bout these Ancient Truths, but they still hold up more often than not.

"Does your county's juries care..."?