And we don't know the back-story, either. The mother may have acted on the final piece of a puzzle to which only she knows the whole answer. If so, that could have been presented to the police and used at trial.
I guess you have no problem is this mother is gunned down by one of the family members of the person she shot do you? The person she shot was someone's son too - she would only be avenging her child who was never even charged with the crime.
Jeff, the fact is that almost no one respects the justice system in the USA. Justice is manipulated, abused, ignored. Also, it is GOOD to know that there are family members behind you to protect. An employee of mine had a talk with the kid who is now his son in law. Not the exact words but the gist is here: "I expect you and my daughter to fight. I expect you to fight to the point where you think 'My God! What was I thinking when I married this woman?' You might get so messed up that she comes home to mommy and daddy. If she does, we will let her stay here, but we will always be looking for a way to send her back to you. You are her family now. If you **** around with another woman, she can come home and STAY if she wants. But, if you ever hit her, I personally will come and break every damn bone in your body. I can do it (this guy, though older, at least made it through tryouts with the Chicago Bears some years ago), and if I get so old I can't do it, I have the money to hire someone who can."
This kid is a fervent Christian (actually he is a pastor), and Randy is a gruff sort of guy who grew up hard and tough. The kid protested that all that was unnecessary, to which my friend replied. "No, NOW it is unnecessary, because it is out there on the table. I look forward to seeing you become the man in her life and as you love her, I will love you like my own son. It just needed to go on the book. Now let's close the book and go on."
If there were more of that, there would be less NEED for the cops to show up and drag someone thru the highly questionable court and jury system.