I am all for law and order but a death sentence for $40?

It was not like he was defending himself.

Hopefully a deterrent on both sides of this.

But it wasn't 40 dollars. This thief had scammed countless people, going back years. It was probably in the thousands of dollars.

However, because the law doesn't look at it this way, the shooter's actions will be addressed by the courts and he'll go to prison. With regards to deterring others from doing this, I don't think so. What we see here is someone acting on impulse, and that's a matter of human nature, and nothing is going to change human nature.

There are smarter ways to do this.

We don't know the shooter's side of this yet. Yes it looks terrible for him, but there may yet be a legitimate self defense angle to this. Obviously the right thing to do was not confront the criminal in the first place. There are many other ways it could have been handled. Still, this could be a Trayvon Martin situation where the shooter did not initiate violence.

I don't cry for the deceased, but seriously question the shooter's judgement.

Unless I'm missing something, an eyewitness has said that the thief was running away when he was shot.

The shooter is screwed

TXCON has some interesting provisions about shooting a thief, at night, to recover property.

Many years ago a retired Sheriff/Chief of Police resident shot and killed a thief stealing his grill from his yard, from his window iirc. The prosecutor said it was a legitimate shooting and was not going to prosecute. Hearing that was a little shocking, it was obvious the retiree had something on the prosecutors office, or was being protected by someone who had the power to stop it. I don't recall it getting any real coverage. This was before the internet as it is today. That was pretty creepy.

It's one thing to be armed, get attacked/see someone getting attacked, and defend yourself or that 3rd party.

It's another thing to be getting robbed resist, get attacked and defend yourself.

This guy found out he was scammed after the fact, went and got a gun, then went looking for the scammer and shot him in the back, placed the gun back in his car and returned to dinner? That, is cold. That IMHO is just plain murder.

All laws are enforced by lethal force.

Theft is a crime. If a thief dies, why care?

It is a homicide. It doesn’t look like it will be murder, under TX law.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

Well, the courts failed, but a pistol bullet rectified the matter permanently.

When there's a vacuum created by the absence of law enforcement and the understanding that offenders will be dealt with through a competent justice system, something fills it. That something is criminal street gangs and individuals that adopt a feeling of entitlement to take revenge whenever they feel they were victims of wrongdoing. Vigilantism.

We need to do something about that vacuum or this becomes the norm.