Death penalty for burglary? Too harsh.

Death penalty for invading someone home with intent to do injury or to kill?

If only that poor Yale girl had been wielding a sword…

In Maryland, you cannot legally purchase a gun until you’re 21 years old. Considering the student in question is an undergraduate at John Hopkins, it is very very unlikely that he would have a gun in the first place.

East University Parkway is an area where I’d feel comfortable having my kids live once they are off to school, assuming that I manage to raise them to have good awareness and city smarts. Unfortunately, many of you seem to think that all of Baltimore is what people see on The Wire. While those parts of town exist, they are far from the Hopkins undergrad (i.e. Homewood) campus. In fact, the best farmers market in Baltimore happens at the end of the block that we’re discussing – I’m there every Saturday morning with both my small kids.

You want to feel afraid, live in Antinous’ shoes for a while. Or, go to Peshawar – I was there last fall and I assure you I didn’t feel comfortable anywhere at any time. Urban wasteland? Try Dhaka. Baltimore and the other large cities in our (relatively) safe and clean country will never look the same to you again.

On topic redemption: As for the young man involved, I sincerely hope that it is found that he acted appropriately once all the information is properly examined. He’ll have a terrible burden to bear for the rest of his life. However, I doubt I’d have acted much differently in investigating the incident were I in his shoes.

Student: Did you hear that noise? Sounds like something in the garage.

Roommate: Yeah. It could be a neighborhood cat again, or it could be the a-holes that stole our laptops this morning.

S: I’m gonna go find out. You get on the phone with 911 and tell them that the burglars might be back.

R: Got it. You should take something to defend yourself with, in case it’s not just a kitty.

S: Golf club? Baseball bat? BB gun? I got it! I’ll take my sword!

S and R together: 1-2-3-Go-Team!

Thus did our student end up holding a katana while being cornered by a would-be burglar. When the burglar lunged, the student used the weapon at hand to stave off the attacker. One slash, then hope the cops get there.

And you deduced that from the three word description: “lunged at him“?

Maybe the burglar was defending himself from the sword wielding resident. Of course he shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but you certainly don’t have enough information to state his intent beyond burglary.

If someone would break into my home in the middle of the night, I sure as heck wouldn’t wait to see if he also decides to rape, kill or go berserk because he’s high on drugs or something. In no way does that mean I value possessions above a life. I highly value my own body and life (and my family’s). I don’t have spares.

Door knockers don’t break into your home in the middle of the night, back you into a corner of your house, and lunge at you.

Class warfare occasionally rears its ugly head here, but this level of bloodlust is truly disturbing. Never mind its wrongheadedness.

How far down the street do you chase or shoot the robber? How crowded a street are you willing to shoot-to-kill a purse-snatcher in?

Remind me not to take your picture nor your tailwind, for fear of my life!

You’ve never confronted an attacker, have you?

Judging by the wounds, however, the student is not very skilled. He should consider lessons.

Hard to tell from the story. He might not have been *trying* to kill the guy. The partially severed hand might be telling.

I feel sorry for the student. Even a righteous killing can be a difficult thing to carry on one’s soul- the poor kid will likely have nightmares for the rest of his life.

Too true, and that’s ultimately a burden the burglar placed upon him.

Really doesn’t anyone *want* the Trek utopia anymore? Are we really so in love with inequality that we must make it worse every year?

This guy doesn’t sound like a good example, but most thefts are committed by people who want more than they have, and have no intention of hurting anyone. If someone is in your house, staying as far away from them as possible is the solution. A scared person who already feels violated is very likely to overestimate the risks he is facing — see Tak’s link.

If this guy had his own playstation, he would have been less likely to break in. Hungry people steal to eat. Junkies steal for drugs. Install a soup kitchen, a clinic, and a rec centre at the local mission, and crime drops 80%. More if you stop jailing every kid with a joint.

Now what to do with the remaining criminals is the thornier question.

-GimpWii

That, as I see it, is an antisocial attitude, barbaric.

No, that’s just the realization that not everyone subscribes to the bargain of civil society. You have to deal with people on their own level.

Yes, at some point we’re forced to resort to the bottom-level laws of survival and defense. That doesn’t mean we should automatically go there the minute we get scared. Society tries to come up with legalistic solutions to things that are complex, with many factors- quite a stupid way to live, really.

How can anyone really make a definitive judgment based on a newspaper article? Was this college kid some kind of obsessed geek who overdosed on Lone Wolf and Cub and always fantasized about a moment like this, over-zealously playing his oft-rehearsed role as protector of his domain? Or was the sword a gift from an uncle and he just happened to grab the first thing at hand in protection, hoping to scare the burglar and, unfortunately, killing him out of the panic of the moment? Who the hell knows?

That being said, if the facts are as presented, this sure looks like self defense to me.

One report I read on this said the suspect had 29 priors, mostly for burglary and theft. Clearly, this guy was not a criminal mastermind. In 50 years of life he spent how much of it behind bars only to return to his behavior over and over and over? And now he’s dead as a result.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You never have to sink to their level. Never.

I mean, I know the world is an ink-blot, but posts like these bring that fact into very sharp relief….

If this happened in Texas this would not be news. You can shoot an intruder on your property at night in Texas no big deal.

Too bad he didn’t survive his injury, maybe he would’ve gotten a clue.

If you’re comfortable with death, no, you don’t.

The rest of us on the other hand…

This is not the death penalty for robbery.

The death penalty is execution by the state for a crime. The death penalty is wrong and should not be supported by any reasonable person because the state has proven itself incompetent at determining guilt and fairly using this penalty. Support of the death penalty is supporting killing innocent people because the system always predictably fails and executes someone it shouldn’t.

This is self-defense with a clearly guilty party unfortnately suffering a huge consequence for his poor choice of actions but he chose those actions, like a half assed daredevil who ends up in the darwin awards he did something dumb and paid with his life and that is his fault. There is no equality between what is right for self-defense and what is just as a punishment via the legal system. The real tragedy is that the student has to live with this incident now and carry that death with him because this jackass acted stupidly and tried robbing him.

The state cannot be trusted with the power to kill but a society must entrust its members to defend themselves against those who would prey on them or else its is doomed