The defendant acted under the influence of extreme emotional
disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the
reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a
person in the defendant's situation under the circumstances as the
defendant believed them to be.
I'm not specifically saying that this particular case isn't murder, but if the quote we're all responding to is accurate then there's explicitly a way it could be considered "not murder". I know absolutely nothing about the relevant law, but legal definitions not quite matching common sense definitions is the case more often than not, I think
The defendant acted under the influence of extreme emotional
disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the
reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a
person in the defendant's situation under the circumstances as the
defendant believed them to be.
Given how composed they are and premeditated it was, I'm not sure if this is in the spirit of the legal clause, but it could be... interpreted liberally by a judge.
Thanks for supplying your legal expertise pro bono, but we're going to need a citation of relevant legislative definition if you're going to make broad claims like that about legal matters.
I don't think capital punishment (murdering a helpless person in custody) is ever justified. It's just cruelty for the sake of cruelty.
What we have here could be an act of societal self-defense, where the target was in the process of actively harming millions of people, and the legal system wasn't doing anything to stop it. Whether or not it was self-defense or just a pre-paid hit for some other reason I can't say, and neither can I judge whether it was justified or not. I just think it's categorically different from capital punishment.
The notion that prison is only for "housing criminals" is just wrong, and leads to the fucked up legal system you see in the US. Its primary purpose should be reforming someone to become a better person, drop their old ways and rejoin society. The percentage of people who can't be reformed is vanishingly small if you do it right. And even in those cases, murdering someone just because they require resources to live is wrong. They are still human beings, however fucked up their actions, and deserve life and dignity simply because of that.
Capital punishment is state sanctioned, that is the only difference in my eyes.
No, the main difference is the active and actual threat the person poses. When they are isolated in prison already, they do not pose any further threat.
After someone’s responsible for the deaths of thousands, and suffering of millions more? Even beyond what he did or didn’t “deserve,” it was simply a practical choice to put him down and prevent him from hurting anyone else.
United healthcare has the highest denial rate the in country. He’s absolutely killed thousands, and would’ve killed many more.
I’m not saying anyone should be killed. But anyone who makes a living on the deaths of others certainly deserves it. For example, even assembly line workers for manufacturing white phosphorus or cluster bombs. There are some types of income that are unjustifiable.