Things are not always as they seem in a self-defense situation.

[arnisador]

Texas Wife Indicted After Husband Kills Lover Killed (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=nation_world&id=5171058)



Darrell Roberson came home from a card game late one night to find his wife rolling around with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway.

Caught in the act with her lover, Tracy Denise Roberson thinking quickly, if not clearly cried rape, authorities say. Her husband pulled a gun and killed the other man with a shot to the head.

On Thursday, a grand jury handed up a manslaughter indictment against the wife, not the husband.


In a case likely to reinforce the state's reputation for don't-mess-with-Texas justice, the grand jury declined to charge the husband with murder, the charge on which he was arrested by police.


I'm pleased to see that the husband was granted significant leeway here, though no charges at all isn't clearly right to me (he fired at the departing truck).

Things are not always what they seem!

[arnisador]

Sagging pants figure into police shooting (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/LOCAL/707310393/1196)


A teenager shot to death by an officer while fleeing a burglary scene might have tried to pull up his sagging pants, causing the officer to mistake the movement for a reach for a weapon, according to court documents.

In a motion filed recently to dismiss a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Vincent Smith Jr.'s father, the city of Gary suggests the 16-year-old was shot as he reached down to hoist up his drooping pants and sprint away from officer Levi Randolph.

"Police officers have to make a lot of split-second decisions," City Attorney Donald Levinson said. "The law does not say you have to wait until someone shoots at you (to act)."

Randolph, who was indicted on a charge of reckless homicide in March for the Jan. 15, 2006, shooting, faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.

I don't know what the full story is and why the officer was indicted, but if the suspect was indeed reaching towards his pants and making a pulling-up motion while running from the cops then it's difficult to be sympathetic. A reasonable person should know that if you choose to resist arrest and make a motion that could be interpreted as drawing a gun then you are taking a severe risk. If this is what happened, the officer's actions seem justified, even if the result was so unfortunate.

[arnisador]

'Happy slapping' outlawed in France (http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/03/07/new_french_law_aimed_at_happy_slapping/)


A new law in France makes it a crime for anyone who is not a professional journalist to film real-world violence and distribute the images on the Internet. Critics call it a clumsy effort by authorities to battle "happy slapping," the youth fad of filming violent acts -- which most often they have provoked -- and spreading the images on the Web or between mobile phones.

[arnisador]

Inmate Accused In Guard Attack Charged In Prison Death (http://www.theindychannel.com/news/13854167/detail.html)

Police: Man Used Part Of Wheelchair To Beat Guard (http://www.theindychannel.com/news/13854167/detail.html)



An inmate who prison officials say injured a guard with a piece of his wheelchair is scheduled to stand trial next month for a similar attack four years ago that killed an inmate at another prison.

Scott Nicholson, 39, used part of his wheelchair to beat guard Loren Hartley in the Pendleton Correctional Facility's medical facility Tuesday afternoon, prison spokesman Neil Potter.

Here is a guy who is determined. It goes to show that you can never underestimate your opponent.

[arnisador]

Following on the theme of things not always being as they seem:

Tenn. Men Accused of Vigilante Justice (http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6922369,00.html)


Everybody in this little mountain community knew that Timothy Carl Chandler had been arrested on child pornography charges. It was in the newspaper and all over the TV news.

Two of Chandler's neighbors decided to do something about it, police say. They're accused of trying to scare him off by setting fire to his tiny house tucked away in a hardscrabble Appalachian hollow.

Chandler, 53, escaped from the flames. But his wife was killed in what authorities are calling an example of vigilante justice.


A good reminder not to take things into one's own hands.

[Carol]

Very sad :(

[arnisador]

Train kills drugged U.S. tourist in Rome (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL269710420080526)


An American tourist was killed by a train in a Rome station as he walked on the tracks in a state of confusion after being robbed by a man who offered him a cappuccino laced with drugs, Italian police said on Monday.
[...] But security cameras and testimony from Phel's wife, who was with him at the station, revealed that an Italian they had been chatting with bought them cappuccinos, added in a mix of sleeping pills and robbed them.


The next morning Phel, still under the influence of the drugged cappuccino, stumbled near the tracks by accident and was hit by the train.


The Italian man has been arrested and accused of murder and robbery.

[arnisador]

Man beaten after teens misinterpret woman's sex screams (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/07/02/10004621-ap.html)


A group of teenagers misunderstood a woman's screams during sex and, thinking they were stopping an assault, beat a 25-year-old man in her bedroom, police said.
[...]
One of the five teens beat the man with a bat and others punched him, police said. The man was treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, and was released that night.

"Apparently he didn't have time to explain himself," Whiteley said.