Rumors of His Survival Are Premature

It was widely reported today that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (Texas' version of the Supreme Court for criminal cases) had agreed to hear an appeal from Tom "Gimme Five (Million)' DeLay and had set a deadline of one week for briefs to be filed. Turns out, it just ain't so. The information came from an email sent yesterday (after the court had closed) by his spokesman. Did they think no one would check and just sorta show up at the court next week?

The erroneous media reports, which the San Antonio Express-News published in a wire story and displayed online, come from DeLay's spokesman, Kevin Madden, in an e-mail sent to reporters Tuesday evening, after courts had closed for the night.

“FYI-Breaking news out of Austin, TX,” the e-mail stated. “The state Court of Criminal Appeals has agreed to hear Mr. DeLay's habeas motion that was filed at the end of last week. The court has set a one-week deadline for briefs to be filed by the parties involved. The court could essentially decide to end Ronnie Earle's prosecution after hearing this motion and the facts presented.”

Madden said this afternoon that he made an error and never intended to “spin” the story.

“In an effort to be instantaneous, I wasn't precise.....My understanding (of the decision) was correct. The way I relayed it wasn't,” he said.