Posted on 02/12/2013 6:51:08 AM PST by Nickname
BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas -
A Brazoria County grand jury has indicted a father for the murder of another man.
According to investigators, David Barajas shot and killed a drunk driver who hit and killed his two young sons.
(Excerpt) Read more at click2houston.com ...
As much as I feel for the father, I cannot abandon the concept of rule of law. It one man can extract his own justice in a case like this, where, exactly do we draw the line?
Christopher Dorner, for instance, has taken it on himself to right what he perceived to be an injustice. I recognize that the cases are not at all comparable, but where would you have us draw the line?
Not guilty. Justifiable homicide.
(Although the state should reimburse him the cost of the bullets)
I’ve always felt death was the appropriate punishment for drunk drivers who kill.
re: “Since we dont really have a law that provides a satisfactory outcome in such cases, he didnt take the law into his own hands.”
We DON’T have a law that provides a satisfactory outcome in such cases?? What does that mean?
I am totally empathetic to this father, and would have no problem letting him off with a very light sentence or medical/mental probation for awhile, but there is no doubt, assuming he did shoot the driver, that if he did so, he committed some degree of murder - we do have laws against murder - right? He did decide that the driver should die, he shot him, so, the father did take the law into his own hands in delivering what he thought was the appropriate sentence.
I think that’s the very definition of “taking the law into one’s own hands”.
There's no law that provides a satisfactory outcome to Mr. Kwan. Same thing here.
I agree. In the past, someone said that if you want to murder someone, do it with a car. The resulting sentences will always be light.
If you see this as a matter of rule of law instead of justice, I can only assume that you living in Massachusetts has distorted your common sense.
There continues to be a place for drawing and quartering in our world.
The father murdered the man who killed his sons.
His sentence, one day suspended.
Austin’s out of state libs need to be sent back to wherever they came from. They’re ruining TX. And to think Perry trotted himself to CA to bring in more. He’ll never again get my vote.
As for the father, he did what needed to be done. I’m betting this wasn’t the first time this guy drove drunk. Wonder how many times a lib judge has done nothing but slap his wrists on previous DUIs. Those judges have blood on their hands and should be made to step down.
If the prosecutor goes for a murder conviction he’s making a big mistake. At most I might vote guilty for manslaughter and then recommend probation. If murder was the only choice I would have no choice but to vote not guilty.
I have a friend who is closely associated with the Brazoria County DA office. She says that the opinions expressed within the office are quite close to many of the opinions shared here. They are not at all confident that a jury will side with the prosecution on this one.
To that end, the consensus is to get convictions on lesser included charges and give Barajas probation.
I hope it turns out that way.
Possibly six months community service, giving talks to drivers convicted of DUI offenses on the repercussions of driving under the influence.
Vigilante justice takes place when a justice system is broken. The justice system doesn’t want to take these drunks and throw the book at them.
When you enact vigilante justice, don’t get caught.
His two sons were 11 and 12 years old, and they were killed in front of him.
I think an awful lot of people would draw the line somewhere beyond this guy and somewhere this side of Dorner.
I think this case argues even more strongly for an outcome which recognizes that "normal" behavior may include killing a drunk driver who murders one's children. There would be good justification for believing that the courts would let the murderous drunk off lightly and that the situation could occur again.
There's a possible problem if the children were exposed to an unreasonable danger which might have resulted in their deaths from even a sober driver.
I wonder what the father thought the consequences of his action would be? I'm guessing that he gave it no thought at all.
As an emotional response, I agree 100%. Intellectually, a civil society cannot permit this kind of vengance. Civilization requires we restrain our impulses, even when our impulses fully justified and lead to a morally satisfactory conclusion.
This is actually a failure of government to perform its minimal duties. The victim, the driver, indusputably had a long record of reckless and/or drunk driving. If he had paid a price proportionate to the risk he represented initially, this would never have happened, and such incidents would be far more rare.
Currently, irresponsible, reckless and criminal behavior is far too lightly punished in America these days. I understand why some citizens want to take the law into their own hands.
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