Was Ministry going to punish Snape if kills Sirius on site? WAS:

[puduhepa98 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 169339

>Carol
<big snip>
>So thanks, Alla. You're right that Snape may have avoided a  prison
sentence for taking justice into his own hands a la Lupin and  Black,
but he also refrained from committing murder in front of three  kids.

Nikkalmati
 
Not  very likely that he would have been convicted of a crime, if he  had 
killed Black, being that self-defense was a viable defense.  We have  see that 
there is not much due process in the WW and many of the laws and  customs refer 
back of an earlier era.  I would just note that there is  precedent for the 
idea that Black could be killed on sight without  consequence:  outlawry.  Once 
a person had been declared an outlaw "If  captured, the outlaw could be hanged 
merely on proof of the outlawry having been  made.  Anyone could capture him 
and kill him if he resisted.  It  needed a resolution of the judges in 1328 to 
save his life against anyone who  took a fancy to kill him . . . (notes 
omitted)."  A Concise History of the  Common Law by Theodore Plucknett, Boston 
1956.  I would not expect that  public announcements would encourage Muggles or 
wizards to approach an armed and  dangerous madman, but that does not mean it 
was forbidden to do it.  
 
Nikkalmati



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