Shoot your spouse in Texas

[snopes]

Comment: A couple of the guys at work said they heard that it is legal in Texas to
shoot your spouse if you catch them cheating as long as you don't reload.
They both seemed pretty convinced of its truth and I thought it sounded
like an urban legend.

And to think people complained about the "Life is Short - Get a Divorce" billboard.

[Jay Temple]

True or not, this may be where a story I read in Reader's Digest occurred. The Legislature had passed a law that gave a man permission to shoot his wife if he found her with another man. There was such an outrage that the Legislature came back and corrected it: They gave the corresponding right to a wronged wife.

[musicgeek]

"Drinking beer in a cabaret, and dancing with a blonde, until one night she put out the lights; BANG! that blonde was gone. Lay that pistol down, babe, lay that pistol down. Pistol packin' mama, lay that pistol down."

And if you can't believe Al Dexter and His Troopers, than who can you believe?

[Sherlock1]

If I remember correctly You were allowed to shoot your wife not your husband but they changed that law approx 20 years ago. I seem to remember watching a movie on tv approx. 20 years ago about a woman who shot her husband and and was trying to get it to apply the other way.

[Not_Done_Living]

YAY! root for the underdog!

Its ridiculas that anyone should be murdered for the act of infidelity...

[songs78]

Reloading would mean you had premeditation. If you don't reload and it was a crime of passion. You don't have the prerequisite mens rea for murder 1. But that doesn't mean its legal to do so. Because you would still be guilty of manslaughter.

I think I read a case like this somewhere. A jury found a man not guilty of murder. There is some truth to it. I might try to go dig it up.

[snopes]

There you have it. Mystery solved.

Mmm, not really. "It's legal to shoot your spouse if you catch her (or him)cheating" legends are plentiful, in the U.S. and elsewhere. What sets this one apart is the "as long as you don't reload" detail, which didn't stem from Adam's Rib.

- snopes

[forceflow15]

Most likely this is a corruption of an actual common law defense to murder, so ably described by songs78.

I think it is likely that someone learned of the common law reduction of murder to manslaughter when a spouse is caught cheating, and added details to make it sound unusual.

[Defrostmode]

as long as you don't reload eh? do you just have to 'know' (I.e. just lie and say they were) they were unfaithful or do you have to have a guy there to shoot too? need a little more information to this 'law' since most aren't that shortly worded.

of coarse I'm kidding

*begins packing bags for moving to Texas*






(JK JK Love ya honey... don't slap me!)