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Murdering a murderer outside the law

Murdering a murderer outside the law

jsidelko
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Posted 11/16/09 - 11:32 AM:
Subject: Murdering a murderer outside the law

The following story is loosely based on Euthypro's confession to Socrates in Plato's dialog of the same name:

Suppose someone has a fight with one of your father's employees and kills him. Your father responds in angry, beats the offender to such a degree that he dies. Your father asks you to help him bury the offender in the backyard. What should you do? Participate in hiding the murdered offender or call the police and tell them what really happened. Your father claims he was angry and didn't intend to kill the man. Should you be loyal to your father or comform what is the legally correct thing to do?

thanatos

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Posted 11/16/09 - 11:48 AM:	#2
The question boils down to loyalty to your father or loyalty to the justice system, as the former advocates taking the law into your own hands, I would recommend the latter.
We build too many walls and not enough bridges. - Newton

Sashianova
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Posted 11/16/09 - 12:33 PM:	#3
Under the circumstances the father wouldn't be charged with first degree murder, it would be a manslaughter charge. Given witnesses, a strong case could be made that the father was acting in self-defense seeing as the father had just witnessed the victim kill his employee and feared for his own safety. Given no witnesses, I would feel little choice but to express to my father that we shouldn't exacerbate the already terrible situation by attempting to cover it up. I wouldn't want to implicate myself as an accessory to murder, and my father wouldn't want that either. Two dead people or one dead/one "missing" person is going to make for a relentless investigation by authorities, and forensics teams are able to catch details we're likely not to think to cover up. Plus the idea of a body rotting under the back lawn is too creepy, I wouldn't be able to live with it. I would make every effort to convince my dad to put forth the self-defense plea and be totally honest with the investigators about what happened, and I would refuse to go along with any attempt to dispose of a body.

Hanover
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2 of 2 people found this post helpful Posted 11/16/09 - 12:51 PM:	#4
I would help Pops bury the guy, simply because I expect there will be a day when I will need his help burying a guy.
"Nothing is impossible for the man who will not listen to reason." John Belushi, "Animal House" "I have opinions of my own --strong opinions-- but I don't always agree with them." G.W. Bush

Desidude666
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Posted 11/16/09 - 11:56 PM:	#5
I'd advise the son to probably assist father legally, there can always be a legal concoction anyways. Why can't a man attack the father, while the son is the witness, and why can't the killing be an act of self-defense for legality? Family ties always come before social obligations. Always. Though at the same time, murder/killing should never be an option. Despite the obvious contradiction.
What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven. - Ludwig van Beethoven

baden511
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Posted 11/18/09 - 08:32 AM:	#6
Hanover wrote: I would help Pops bury the guy, simply because I expect there will be a day when I will need his help burying a guy. LOL, I think the answer depends on the context. For me, the law does not define what is moral; it simply defines what society considers to be, in general terms, the 'best' set of rules. It can't define what is right in every situation. Desidue666 wrote: Though at the same time, murder/killing should never be an option. Why not? As far as I am concerned everything is an option. That doesn't mean that I expect a scenario where I should murder or kill someone to arise, but I don't deny the possibility that those actions might be the best option in a particular context. It's not too hard to come up with such scenarios, just use your imagination.
"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Moses (Numbers 31:17-18) Quality of life is determined by conscious/unconscious strategies in context that are benficial/detrimental with regard to immediate/anticipated states of consciousness.

JC123
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Posted 11/18/09 - 12:19 PM:	#7
Did the father murder the man after the employee was killed, or was it a heat of the moment kind of thing?

Hanover
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Posted 11/18/09 - 01:46 PM:	#8
JC123 wrote: Did the father murder the man after the employee was killed, or was it a heat of the moment kind of thing? I think the facts were that he beat him to death while he was minding his business mowing his lawn, then he drank his blood, pissed down his throat, and then raped him before a crowd of school children getting off their bus. I'm not real good with facts, so you may want to scroll up and reread the OP and double check this.
"Nothing is impossible for the man who will not listen to reason." John Belushi, "Animal House" "I have opinions of my own --strong opinions-- but I don't always agree with them." G.W. Bush

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