It goes without saying that as a practical matter, a person can be prosecuted for violating laws that one deems unjust. That is undeniably true.
My initial challenge to cp's article was using the term murder thus implying that some punishable crime was being committed...
Perhaps you, as Javelina, are using the term in a positivistic legal sense, whereas I have been using it in a natural law sense. Regarding the etymology of the term "murder" I offer the following:
| murder |
| SYLLABICATION: | mur·der |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  mûr d r |
| NOUN: | 1. The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice. 2. Slang Something that is very uncomfortable, difficult, or hazardous: The rush hour traffic is murder. 3. A flock of crows. See synonyms at flock1. |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: mur·dered, mur·der·ing, mur·ders |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To kill (another human) unlawfully. 2. To kill brutally or inhumanly. 3. To put an end to; destroy: murdered their chances. 4. To spoil by ineptness; mutilate: a speech that murdered the English language. 5. Slang To defeat decisively; trounce. |
| INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To commit murder. |
| IDIOMS: | get away with murder Informal To escape punishment for or detection of an egregiously blameworthy act. murder will out Secrets or misdeeds will |
--------------------------
murder - O.E. morðor "secret killing of a person, unlawful killing," also "mortal sin, crime, punishment, torment, misery," from P.Gmc. *murthran, from PIE base *mor-/*mr- "die." The spelling with -d- probably reflects influence of Anglo-Fr. murdre, from O.Fr. mordre, from M.L. murdrum, from the Gmc. root. Viking custom, typical of Gmc., distinguished morð (O.N.) "secret slaughter," from vig (O.N.) "slaying." The former involved concealment, or slaying a man by night or when asleep, and was a heinous crime. The latter was not a disgrace, if the killer acknowledged his deed, but he was subject to vengeance or demand for compensation...."
------------------------
The New Testament quotes Exodus 20:13 in Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, and Luke 18:20. In these verses, the Greek word used is phoneú
. Like ratsách, this word also means to "murder" or "slay". It is used for the translating of the Hebrew ratsách because they both convey the thought of taking someone's life without cause.
With regard to your note about jury nullification, I remind you that the actions of the OJ jury certainly did not advance the case of justice.
Is this reminder a tacit admission of my point that the law and justice are not necessarily the same thing?:^)
Cordially,