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Showing posts from September, 2006

Causing the Fight

Carl Lee Hailey murdered two white men who gang raped his ten-year-old daughter, and was acquitted from the said crime by the jury despite his obvious guilt. This was the story of a responsible father turned vigilante killer in John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill.” Just like the reasons of the acquittal of Hailey, the vigilante killers and their supporters believe in putting justice in their own hands; that a crime is justified on the victim’s criminal record. But what do we call these people who are solving crime through crime? Isn’t the definition of the word criminal, someone who is guilty of a crime? Isn’t the murder of a person a crime? If the answer to these questions is yes, then vigilante killers are criminals. It was said that even implementors of the law tolerate and accept vigilante killing as a means of eradicating criminals. Many ordinary citizens are slowly approving the idea. No one knows, maybe tomorrow, vigilante killing will be legal. St. Thomas Aquinas’ validity of la