[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione attempted murder!

[Robert A. Rosenberg]

No: HPFGUIDX 69654

At 20:24 +0000 on 07/11/2003, Steve wrote about [HPforGrownups] Re: 
Hermione attempted murder!:

>Wouldn't Hermione's action to save the life of another person, and to
>prevent a capital crime from being commited against her closest friend
>be considered justifiable?

This reminds me of "Colonial Law" as it existed in H. Beam Piper's 
"Little Fuzzy" (and subsequent stories in the series although it did 
not figure again in the action but only the "What Has Already 
Happened" Recap). Any action that in-and-of-itself was a Felony was 
not a crime (and thus nonchargeable) if performed during an attempt 
to prevent the commission of a Felony. In this case it was a 
situation where A was killing a (possibly sentient) aboriginal 
native, B attempted to stop the killing, only to have A's Bodyguard C 
try to protect A by gunning down B (who outdrew and shot C). When the 
Police came, A charged B with C's Murder and B responded by 
acknowledging having killed C (in self defence) in the process of 
trying to stop A murdering a sentient being. When it came time to 
hold a trial on the situation, BOTH A and B were put on trial at the 
same time with each's Defence Attorney appointed a Special Prosecutor 
against the other Defendant. The Court had ruled this procedure was 
permissible AND REQUIRED since while a Murder had occurred, the 
question of who committed the Murder depended on if the native that A 
had killed was sentient (thus making the killing Murder and the 
actions of B permissible and nonchargeable since the attempt to 
protect the being was not definable as a crime and thus C could not 
interfere) or not (thus making B's killing of C Murder since while in 
self-defence the killing of the native was not a Felony thus making 
B's Attack on A a Felony). I know my description is a little 
convoluted since I was trying to be compact but the essence of the 
situation is the same as in Hermione's  case.