I find this sentence appalling. 5 years deferred adjudication for attempted capital murder? We have people in prison for stealing beer!

Now a grammar/spelling/vocab off topic comment. For some reason, although I know it's correct, "pleaded guilty" sounds wrong to me. I would say "pled guilty" which is also correct! Bleed - bled; Lead - led; Feed - fed; Plead - pleaded or pled! English is a weird language with too many broken rules.

I'm sure a lot of us are left wondering how in the world a person gets deferred adjudication for solicitation of capital murder. It seems so absurd that I wonder if there is some key element we don't know about this case.

In a classic understatement, the husband said, "She's just made some bad decisions, really bad decisions." Seriously? In my world, a bad decision is when your teenager decides to skip school or drink alcohol at a party. Soliciting someone to murder your husband goes far beyond my definition of a "bad decision".

and here i thought this story was about solicitation of murder and not english, DOH ! how silly of me. the daughter was just as guilty but they declined to indict her. huh ! that is exactly the same sentence that you get for burglary of a habitat for the first time. a ridiculous sentence to say the least. maybe they are hoping that she will try it again. chances are good that she will.

Would a man have gotten deferred adjudication?

There is a major difference between the Chronicle article and the Times article. The Chronicle article makes it sound as if Mr. Shamp is happy with the sentence. The Times article makes it clear that he is not.

BTW, the Times used "pled" instead of "pleaded". EC, that's for you! I admitted that it was off topic earlier and I did respond to the article so no grounds for whining!

Small amount of research for similar Texas cases---

There was an Allen man who did not admit his guilt in a failed murder for trial plot, went to jury trial where they found him guilty of 2 counts of solicitation of capital murder (wife and unborn child). During the sentencing phase his wife asked that he be given probation because her boys needed a father and he had changed, her lawyer disagreed, and he was given 30 years. I'm not sure if it's the difference between a man and a woman, or the difference between a judge or a jury, or something else.

Wanda Holloway (cheerleader mom) first got sentenced to 15 years (overturned because a juror was on probation), then judge sentenced her to 10 years. She served 6 months and 9.5 years on probation.

Rebecca Simpson of Bridgeport, Texas - sentenced in jury trial to 25 years in prison. Judge threw the sentence out because her lawyer failed to tell her of an earlier plea deal of 5 years in prison. Plea deal was offered again and she accepted.

So, it's all over the place, but it seems that Harris County is more lenient. In my opinion, this was too lenient. I would expect that the daughter also had more involvement than previously admitted.

3 different news sources and 3 different angles of dad's reaction.....very strange.