Thursday, September 13, 2007

Remember, he's in until 2011

You might be the kind who foresees a hot pennant race between the Devil Rays and the Royals in the near future. Or maybe you're the sort who projects a showdown between Duncan Hunter and Dennis Kucinich in fall 2008. Perhaps you have a long list of reasons to believe these things.

If so, go ahead and ignore this post about Troy King's latest antics. Otherwise, let's read along with today's Birmingham News, where we learn that Alabama's attorney general has removed the Shelby County district attorney from a capital murder case. Why? Because the DA had the gall to suggest that the judge should convert someone's death sentence to life behind bars.

Sure, you might say the defendant didn't actually shoot anyone. You might note that the person who actually did the killing can't be executed because he was a juvenile at the time and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it's unconstitutional to execute offenders for crimes they committed when they were under 18.

You also might observe, apropos to nothing, that the Republican DA publicly supported King's Democratic opponent last year. And you might even point out that the judge's ruling quoted King's own damn legal argument, from a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, that it "would defy common sense" to execute the person who didn't shoot but not the person who did.

But you'd just be missing the big picture. The Rays have a great farm system, dude. They're gonna own next year.