'Til Death Do Them Part

The front page story of Saturday's Herald Sun, Melbourne's most popular tabloid drivel, reported that a mother of three had dressed in full camouflage gear, lured her husband into an open area with a fake distress call, waited and then gunned him down when he arrived. The more startling part is that she was found not guilty of all charges. The defence's main arguments were that her husband was abusive towards her (verbally, physically and sexually) and basically that killing her husband was her only possible escape of her crappy life - and was adjudicated as an act of self defence excusable by law.

Australia says no to domestic violence, and so do I, but cold-blooded murder cannot be the solution. As much as I believe that morons like the husband should be taken out to pasture away from the rest of us, to do it in one's own hands makes a mockery of our judicial system and the values we base societial living on. Should we really be able to establish empathy as a workaround to our governing laws?

It's a shame that this woman couldn't predict the future life that lay ahead of her when making the binding commitment of marriage. That's a lifelong promise that you'll stick by them forever, in sickness and in health, through good times and bad. Instead, she skipped to the terminating clause: 'til death do us part. Even if it was at the hands (and arms) of a housewife driven to the edge.