Do you think the police could/should have captured him and brought him to trial, or were they justified in executing him?
Charles Whitman
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Marine who killed 16 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the university's campus on Aug. 1, 1966.
Whitman killed three of his victims inside the university's tower, and 10 others from the 28th floor observation deck<1><2> of the University's 307-foot (94 m) administrative building; one, Karen Griffith, died a week after the shooting from her wounds.
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Austin Police Department (APD) Officers Ramiro Martinez, Houston McCoy and Jerry Day, plus civilian Allen Crum, were the first to reach the tower's observation deck, stepping outside the south door at 1:24 p.m. Martinez, closely followed by McCoy, formed one team and proceeded north on the east deck. Day, followed by Crum, formed a second team and proceeded west on the south deck, with Whitman believed to be between the two teams. Several feet before reaching the southwest corner, Crum accidentally discharged a shot from his borrowed rifle. At the same time, Martinez jumped around the corner into the northeast area and rapidly fired all six rounds from his .38 police revolver at Whitman. As Martinez was firing, McCoy jumped to the right of him and fired two fatal shots of double-ought buck with his 12-gauge shotgun into the head, neck, and left side of Whitman, who was sitting with his back toward the north wall in the northwest corner area 50 feet away.
Whitman, who appeared to be unaware of the presence of Martinez and McCoy, was partially shielded by the deck tower lights and in a position to defend assaults from either corner.After firing six rounds, Martinez threw his empty revolver onto the deck and grabbed McCoy's shotgun, running to Whitman's prone body and firing point blank into his upper left arm. Martinez then threw the shotgun on the deck and hurriedly left the scene repeatedly shouting, "I got him."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_WhitmanFrom Business and Law:
Is Osama bin Laden killing legal? International Law experts divided
Dellinger also pointed out that it was a "highly dangerous mission" and the Navy SEALS met with "armed resistance" from other terrorists in the mansion, even if bin Laden was unarmed.
"It takes 20 minutes to make it to the third floor (where bin Laden lived). They don't know if the Pakistani military is going to be closing in, is going to impede their departure. Every second counts. And it would compromise the mission to do anything other than use lethal force against bin Laden and get him out as quickly as possible," he said.
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White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Navy SEALS "was prepared and had the means to take bin Laden into custody." However, bin Laden had not surrendered and had shown no indication that he was killing to surrender, Carney said.
Agrees Dworkin. "Under law enforcement standards, you can only use lethal force if it is strictly necessary to prevent the loss of other lives or to prevent the escape of someone you are seeking to arrest," Deutsche Welle quoted Dworkin as saying. He added that in this case it appeared the US was justifying the shooting by appealing to a mixture of these standards: "It was in the context of a fire fight, the US forces were meeting a lot of resistance, bin Laden was not giving himself up to the US forces even if he didn't have a weapon."
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/142448/20110507/osama-bin-laden-killing-legal-violate-international-law-experts-lawyers-divided.htmDo you think the Navy Seals could/should have captured him and brought him to trial? Or were they justified in executing him?
Where do we draw the line in judging if police action in killing a dangerous mass murderer is moral?