The case about the Japanese exchange student got quite a lot of coverage in Time and Newsweek, which I subscribed to at the time. I followed the case from the time when the actual shooting was reported up to the time when the homeowner was acquitted. I had been absolutely certain that the homeowner would be found guilty of some sort of crime, and I was horrified at his acquittal. The jury ruled that it had been acceptable for the defendant to shoot the exchange student in self defence. The fact that the student had been shot in the back, that he was unarmed and that he had not tried to break in was not considered sufficient evidence that the homeowner had overreacted. I'm sure there are facts I don't know about the case. For example, I'm assuming that the student was probably drunk and horribly dressed up, which, however, Time and Newsweek did not mention, to my recollection. It could well be, too, that the homeowner had posted a "No Trespassing" sign somewhere, and it is also quite possible that he had previously been pestered and hounded by young hoodlums. Maybe the exchange student was knocking quite loudly on his door and making some drunken and seemingly threatening sounds. To me, however, none of that can justify shooting and killing a person who is leaving your property without having damaged it. Perhaps the homeowner was suffering from temporary insanity? But if so, wouldn't that have been officially stated as the reason for his acquittal?
At about the same time that the case of the exchange student was reported, I saw a TV program about domestic violence in America. I'm extremely well aware that domestic violence occurs everywhere, so I'm not trying to turn that into a specifically American problem. This program concentrated on describing the case of a man who had killed his wife and who had a history of violence. He had previously killed a man. But the court had decided that the husband's killing of the other man had been self defence, and therefore nothing had been done to reprimand the husband or to curb his violent tendencies.
America is such a big and populous country, with 300 million inhabitants and 50 - or is it 52? - states. I, too, realize that you can't judge such a big and diverse country by a few individual incidences. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I live in a country where the violent taking of another person's life, unless it happens in a few select cases in the line of duty, or in some extremely clear-cut cases of self defence, is always regarded as a crime.
Ann
