VP Dick Cheney or America's Most Wanted

Is Vice-President Dick Cheney about to be one of the nation’s newest felons?!?

Although I passed the Maryland bar exam in 1995 that does not make me an expert on Texas law.  I am not.  But, I have been reading for about 31 years now, and I have found some interesting things under the Texas State Penal code.

§ 22.01.  ASSAULT.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person:      

1. intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person's spouse;

Let’s see, the reports say that our VP seems to have shot a guy, that was standing behind him, wearing bright orange.  That might just fall into the “reckless” category.  

Was there bodily injury to another?  Well, if you count getting shot in the face, neck, and chest by a shotgun as bodily injury then the answer is most likely, “Yes.”

Unfortunately the Texas statute goes on to add:

§ 22.02.  AGGRAVATED ASSAULT.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person commits assault as defined in § 22.01 and the person:
          (1)  causes serious bodily injury to another, including the person's spouse;  or

1. uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.

(emphasis added)

D’oh!  Well, it doesn’t look good for the VP IF the reports are accurate.  Any idea on whether Vice President status gives a person the proverbial “Get out of jail free” card?  Wait!  I forgot to add:

1. An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree

Yep, second degree felony.  Nope, this does not seem to be good news for the Home team.

Not to make fun of this, but this is funny:
http://www.poe-news.com/features.php?feat=31845

This picture is from March 2005 and yet is strangely appropriate to today’s news.
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(Thanks www.boingboing.net)