He's what???

I am literally stunned. When I heard the verdict on the radio last night, I nearly crashed the car. Padraig Nally has been found innocent.

What? So . . . sorry, can you explain that again? Mr Nally beat Mr Ward 20 times with a stick and shot him twice with a single barrel shotgun as he tried to run away. And he's innocent?

Yesterday evening, Nally was found not guilty of the manslaughter of Ward, a father of 11, at the Central Criminal Court. The jury of four women and eight men took almost 16 hours to reach their verdict. For those unfamiliar with the case, presumably including readers in the US and the Far East, here's what happened from a press report during the first trial:

The court was told Nally arrived at his farmhouse on the afternoon of October 14, 2004 when he spotted a suspicious-looking car parked beside an overgrown lane next to the house with a man sitting in the driver`s seat.

The court heard that Nally had become increasingly agitated and worried that his property would be targeted by local thieves as a number of farms in the area had recently been burgled. His own home had been broken into in 2003 and a chainsaw stolen from one of his sheds in February 2004. Friends and neighbours noted Nally had become preoccupied with looking after his farm and terrified that the robbers would return.

The court was told Nally approached the vehicle and told the driver that whoever was on his land would not be coming back. When he checked around the farmhouse, the court was told Nally discovered 42-year-old Mr Ward at his back door.

The farmer grabbed a loaded shotgun from one of the sheds and shot Mr Ward in the side. Garda sergeant James Carroll, one of the first officers on the scene, told the court there was no forensic evidence to show that Mr Ward had been in Nally`s house.

The court heard that after shooting Mr Ward, Nally shoved him into a bed of nettles. He then beat him repeatedly with a two-foot stick. Mr Ward tried to run away, limping and bleeding from the shotgun wound. He struggled to make it off Nally`s land, the court heard. Sgt Carroll said Nally went back his shed and loaded the single barrel shotgun.

He followed Mr Ward to the edge of the land and as he tried to flee, Nally shot him a second time. He then dumped the body over a wall. The court also heard that Nally returned to his house but minutes later called at a neighbour`s home and confessed to the brutal killing.

Throughout the Garda investigation, Nally was said to have been open and candid about what had happened. But the court was told Nally told officers he had been out of his mind with fear and that he felt suicidal after shooting.

I should stay that I have a huge amount of sympathy for Nally - I am sure he was terrified and paranoid and was imagining the worse, but unfortunately that doesn't make what he did okay.

His victim may have been the worst kind of scumbag, and by all accounts he was - he had 80 previous convictions over 38 different court appearances including burglary, handling stolen goods, assault, and larceny - but does that make what Nally did acceptable?

I also have sympathy with Ward's widow and his children, but she was married to a serial criminal and can't pretend he was an angel. He wasn't - he was a pestilient drain on the society he lived in. However, all of this overlooks the fact that Nally shot this guy, then beat him "like a badger," as he put it in court, and then as Ward tried to get away, Nally coolly went back inside his house to get more cartridges, and calmly reloaded and shot him again.

If that's not an unlawful killing, then I don't know what is. I am literally stunned by this. Personally, I am all in favour of empowering people to defend themselves, particularly in their own homes when criminals bring trouble to them. If Ward had attacked Nally, then I would be much more forgiving. In this instance though, Nally's mental instability with regard to the amount of fear he was living with caused him to massively overreact.

Also, I could even forgive the initial shooting and beating, on the grounds that emotions were probably running high. If had stopped there, I would have said he should have received a suspended sentence and been let go. But he coolly and calmly reloaded his gun and killed him. Shocking.

Interestingly, a talking head on the radio yesterday made the point that this decision is simply one of the quirks of the jury system of government. Irish law works heavily with legal precedent, but this judgement has no effect on future judgements. Only decisions made by judges become legal precedent, not decisions made by juries. This is to protect society from the fact that anybody can make it onto a jury and as a group of people, can decide anything they like - it doesn't mean they are right.

Seriously though. Innocent?