海角大神

In Shiner, Texas, there鈥檚 little doubt among residents that a 23-year-old man who reportedly killed a man he found molesting his 5-year-old daughter in a horse barn should be hailed as a hero, not denounced as a criminal.

Yet some legal experts question why the father hasn鈥檛 yet been arrested and charged with murder, saying vigilante justice, no matter how the circumstances come about, can鈥檛 be tolerated in a civil society.

A Texas grand jury will have to deal with those questions next week as it takes a deeper look at the circumstances of the killing, and whether the father was justified in hitting the man so hard with his fists that he died.

In most jurisdictions, according to 鈥淐riminal Law,鈥� a widely used textbook, the use of fists in defense if there are no other weapons present is automatically an example of reasonable force. But in this case, were emotions an extenuating circumstance that caused the angry dad to go too far? More broadly, when is a person in a defensive fight required to stop?

鈥淎ssuming it鈥檚 true that this guy was molesting the daughter 鈥� he would then have the right to defend her and hit him enough to have him stop,鈥� James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told Foxnews.com. 鈥淏ut you cannot summarily execute him, even though I can understand the anger he would have.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭he question is: When does it move beyond self-defense?鈥�

And there鈥檚 another quirk to the case, suggests radio talk show host Geraldo Rivera, a lawyer.

鈥淚f he had a weapon and he used it to stop a sexual assault, he would not be indicted, but, ironically, the fact that he didn鈥檛 have a weapon leaves him more legally vulnerable than otherwise he would be,鈥� Mr. Rivera told Bill O鈥橰eilly Friday on Fox News. 鈥淚n this case, you grab him off, now you鈥檝e stopped the sexual assault, but now what are you doing? At what point does prevention of the sex assault become revenge, the implementation of vigilante justice?鈥�

So far, the court of public opinion has stood steadfastly behind the father.聽

鈥淎ny father would have done that," Michael James Veit, a neighbor, told CNN on Thursday. "Everybody is saying the father is justified."

The killing happened last Saturday, according to Lacava County Sheriff Micah Harmon, after the man鈥檚 daughter had gone to a barn to feed the family鈥檚 chickens, and then began screaming.

When the father ran to investigate, he found a man described as a family acquaintance, a horse groomer, sexually abusing the girl. Police have not released any names, in part to protect the girl鈥檚 identity, and, in the case of the man who was killed, because they have not yet located his relatives in Mexico.

According to the county coroner, the man died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Eyewitnesses arrived to see the alleged molester already on the ground, not moving. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was treated and released for minor injuries.

While police continue to investigate, they have so far found no reason to disbelieve the man鈥檚 story. The dad 鈥渉ad remorse,鈥� says Sheriff Harmon. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 his intent [to kill anybody]. He was protecting his daughter and doing what he thought he had to do to protect his daughter.鈥�

Despite the dad鈥檚 potential legal liability, Rivera said, most American jurors 鈥� given the facts as known at the moment 鈥� would agree with Harmon.