Justified

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The United States court system is among the most reliant court systems in the world. However, even the best court systems make mistakes and cannot be trusted entirely. More than a fair share of citizens that are truly guilty do not get the punishment by law that they deserve. An example of this unjustification is the State of Florida vs. Casey Anthony in 2005 when she murdered her daughter and was found not guilty (Hopper). There should be some type of punishment when the United States court system fails; matters should be taken into the hands of the citizens. In “The Killings” by Andre Dubus, Matt decides the fate of the Strout who murdered his beloved son because he believed the court system will not prevail. In the court system, there are only three options the verdict could be: plead insane, receive capital punishment, or could be put on parole.
The first verdict of the trial would be for Strout to plead insanity. Insanity defence is the claim that a defendant is not responsible for their actions in the case due to mental health problems. There is a 1% percent chance of an insanity plea in all criminal cases, and this percentage significantly increases when it is a homicidal case (Thomson). If Strout were to attend court and plead insanity, he would get off free without any repercussion. Strout was emotionally attached to his wife even though they were going through a divorce that he did not approve of. If Strout was alive, there would have been a high chance that he would plead insanity because he would have claimed he was traumatized. His support for being traumatized would be because his wife cheated on him which left him in an absent state of mind. With Matt killing Strout before the trial, he saved the courtroom time and...

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...y. With Matt killing Stout before he could sit trial he saved the court time and effort of either convicting him of his crime or looking like imbeciles by letting a murderer off the hook. Matt did what any father would do to avenge his son and should not be charged with any crime for avenging his youngest son's death.

Works Cited

Babcock, Sandra. "TIME ON DEATH ROW." DPIC. Death Penalty Information Center, 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Hopper, Jessica, Emily Friedman, Yunji De Nies, and Aaron Katersky. "Casey Anthony Trial: Not Guilty Murder Verdict." ABC News. ABC News Network, 11 July 2011.
Nannette, Miranda. "80 Percent of Murderers Eligible for Parole Released." ABC Owned Television Stations. ABC News Network, 09 Feb. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Thomson, Reuters. "Status of the Insanity Defense." Findlaw. Criminal Find Law, 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

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