US introduces death penalty for burglary

Joe Horn and his victims, burglars Hernando Riascos Torres and Diego Ortiz.

Well, for black or Hispanic people who commit burglary, at least. ABC Newsradio played the recording of the 911 call that porcine redneck made before he shot two men who were robbing his neighbour's house. He murdered them. In cold blood. And a jury let him get away with it.

The New York Times article has quotes from the tape:

“I’m not going to let them get away with it,” he told the emergency operator. “I’m going to shoot.” He added, “I’m going to kill them.”

The operator repeatedly told Mr. Horn not to shoot, and the police had just arrived at the scene when Mr. Horn fired three blasts of 00 buckshot from his 12-gauge, striking the men in their backs.

But this- this is scariest of all:

The Texas Penal Code allows the use of deadly force if the “actor reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary.” Deadly force can also be used to protect property when “the other is fleeing immediately after committing burglary.”

So... someone steals a pie and runs off with it- that justifies some redneck shooting them dead? Or would it take something worth slightly more- maybe a box full of frozen pies? 5 boxes? 100 boxes? At what point does it become acceptable to take someone's life because they stole some stuff? America is fucking insane, and Texas has to be among the worst of the nutty southern states- although that's hard to say, as they're all pretty bad. The people who are saying that no African American or Hispanic person would have got away with murder in the way that Joe Horn did are totally on the mark. He got away with it because he was white. It's just hard to believe your eyes when you see shit like that.