Instant death penalty.

[wildwood]

I got an email recently which somewhat startled me. Being always hesistant to support the death penalty because of possible mistaken conviction, is a situation such as here where there is definitely no mistake justified? Note that some of the pictures are graphic! http://tinyurl.com/y429qm

[maxximus]

do we really no for sure what is going on here?

[maxximus]

know?

[jake-the-peg]

This is not a death penalty.

The death penalty involved the deliberate execution of a convicted criminal in a controlled situation.

This is a situation where (presumably) a police officer took the decision that the use of lethal force would resolvea situation where a hostage's life was in imminant danger.

The police take these sorts of decisions and act in this way in the UK too.

Here for example
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3726 062.stm

In this particular case the kidnapper survived but that is probably more accident than design!

[Lonnie]

I got this on an email a couple of days ago, but if its genuine, then the kidnapper got what he deserved.

[Andyvon]

I agree with Jake.

The policeman isn't cold-bloodedly executing the kidnapper. I think he felt at the instant that the boy was in imminent danger of being killed. The policeman therefore had no option other than to shoot the man to save the boy.