Thought i'd chip in with my 2p worth.
Not that i'm defending the burgular (i'm not), but there is more to this case than meets the eye. Carl Lindsay was actually a drug dealer who was being robbed by other drug dealers trying to steal his drugs. (
see here) But even so, I think even a drug dealer should be able to protect his possessions from others.
Also, I don't know how many of these are actually murders, but I imagine it is very small. A lot of people say they would kill someone who broke in, to protect their family, but could they actually kill someone? TBH If someone broke into my house while my family was there, I don't think I could kill him. I'd quite happily kick the s*** out of him until the police arrived, but I don't think I could kill him deliberately. I'm guessing most other people are the same. Most of these deaths of burgulars do tend to be people who died because of their injuries, much later, rather than on the spot. If I was to catch a burgular, and I hit him once over the head to stun him until the police arrived, but he died later because of a haemorrhage, I wouldn't call that unreasonable force. If I hit him repeatedly until he stop breathing, and then some, then that is a different matter. If he died after reasonable force? That would be unfortunate, (especially for the burgular), but with the amount of violence against even cooperative burgulary victims, people have a right to prevent it from happening to them and others. Look at a quote from that article:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/archive/2004/03/09/NEWS7ZM.html
Lindsay chased the trio out of his flat.
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Note he chased them out, rather than just systematically killed them all.
Unfortunately, Jerrek, there is a downside to home owners being more pro-active in defending their property. It leads to escalation, as burgulars are more likely to go armed to counter any hostile resistance they might face, than they would for a soft target. It is the same dilemma that the police were facing about introducing guns. Of course, even if home owners were guaranteed to be cooperative (like if any resistance is put up, insurance claims would be denied, say), and burgulars knew this, this would not eliminate violence either.
You just have to try and strike a balance in the middle somewhere.
Another point to think about is that in times of great stress, or worry, such as being burgled, people sometimes go into a temporary reflex-style psychosis. They don't have the opportunity to contemplate any other action than the one they are going to do. They don't have the ability to reason: "Have I hit him enough? What if he gets up while i'm calling the police? Etc. Instinct takes over, and even if they were ardent members of the "Fred Barras Convalescence Support Group" to help injured burgulars, there is no saying if they were ever burgled, they wouldn't do what Martin or many others did. It is not the home owners fault/problem either.