Man Cleared for Killing Neighbor's Burglars in Texas. Damn Right!

[ZenfoldorVGI]

Sqrl said:

The Ghost of RubangB said:
Zen,

Belonging in prison and deserving to die are completely different things. However guilty these people were does not justify their murder. I could walk down this street right now and shoot some gang members and make the world a better place, but I would still go to jail for murder. Those fuckers scare the shit out of me, but that doesn't make it okay to kill them. This isn't Taxi Driver here. If this guy was afraid, that doesn't make it okay for him to shoot people.

The actual law in question here doesn't even cover the neighbor's house. The guy didn't even know the neighbors. He broke the law, and they bent the rules for him. He should be charged with manslaughter and the people who found him innocent should lose their jobs.

Yes, people risk death when they break into somebody's house. But nobody should ever be shot in the back when they're running away.

@bolded,

Again, legally it does if he was afraid for his life from the people he shot.

I mean the irony here is staggering, you are willing to convict him in your mind based on the limited details and assumptions you were able to scrape together from the article. So you in essense are willing to see him put in jail for the rest of his life (he is 61 iirc) and you even have the benefit of time to make a careful decision where as he didn't.

 

 

Exactly. Rubang, I'm not trying to gang up on you here. I completely see your point.

However, we share a different ideology when it comes to justice. I believe that the benefit of the doubt should always go to the civilian, and never to the criminal.

I believe that the case against a civilian vs criminal should have to be so air tight and certain that it is virtually indesputiable, open and shut.

I don't feel that it should get the same treatment as any other case.

This guy isn't a criminal. He didn't have time to contemplate the ins and outs of the legal system. He simply acted on what he thought was the right thing to do to prevent the criminals at that time from doing what they were doing. It's easy to second guess. However, we have to give him the benefit of the doubt, that is mis-assumptions and poor thinking and judgement caused this tragedy, instead of his theoretical wanton will to be an avenger for justice.

 

In all honestly, I think he was scared. I very seriously doubt that what was going through his mind when he shot those folks was "Woot! Two criminals off the street, murder time."

More likely it was "Zomg, /pisspants, helps! /adrenaline rush bullet time."

 

Now, in all honestly, if you got bullet time going on for you, it's hard not to be just a tiny bit scared of how this is going to turn out.