Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Killing in self-defense

Killing in self-defense
Public domain illustration image
Shooting and killing a person in his sleep can't possibly be deemed as self-defense? Or can it?

It most definitely can, as the case below from Texas - where a girl is cleared by a jury - clearly indicates. The girl was 12 at the time and shot her own father to death while he was sleeping.

I can remember a similar case here in Norway where a youth shot his abusive father to death with a shotgun, while the father was asleep. He was freed by the court on the grounds of self-defense, just like the girl here.

One of the commentators in the case here also gives a reference to another similar case of someone being cleared of murder.
Jurors Monday decided a teenage Katy girl accused of fatally shooting her father was not guilty of murder because she acted in self-defense. Mark A. Nelson, 38, died in April 2009. His daughter, who was 12 at the time, was accused of shooting Nelson in the back of his head as he lay in bed.
I'm positive you will have some viewpoints about this, right? Is it totally wrong to free someone who have shot and killed a sleeping person, or may it indeed be cases where this will be justifiable self-defense in your opinion.

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