Appeals Court tosses one count against Perry

San Antonio Express-News:
An appeals court on Friday rejected one of the criminal counts against former Gov. Rick Perry but said he must face the other one in the abuse-of-power case against him.

Perry was indicted by a grand jury in 2014 after being accused of abusing his veto power to try to force out the Democratic Travis County district attorney in the wake of her messy drunken-driving arrest.

The former governor, who is running for the GOP nomination for president, repeatedly failed in efforts get the indictment dismissed by state Judge Bert Richardson. He took his case to the 3rdCourt of Appeals in Austin.

The 3rd Court agreed with Richardson that it was too early in the case to decide whether the first count against Perry, charging abuse of official capacity, was unconstitutional as applied to the former governor. It is a first-degree felony.

But the appeals court rejected the second count, coercion of a public servant, saying that the law on which it is based violates the First Amendment.

A decision by the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin can be appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
...
It would not surprise me if the Court of Criminal Appeals throws out the rest of the case.  This case was a travesty from Travis County from the very beginning.  It was an attempt to criminalize political differences.  What remains of it deserves to be tossed, too.

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