The law is the law
Officially, “vigilante justice” is an oxymoron. Unofficially, to more than a few, it makes good sense. Granted, the authorities have been ceded the right to punish lawbreakers, but clever lawyers knock the pinnings from under the evidence, persuading judges and juries that no crime was committed. Or that the perpetrator was in fact the victim.
To the courts, that innocent verdict is the end of it — case closed — but to the actual victim (if he or she survived) and his kin, justice wasn’t served. If angry enough, they may decide to do what they consider The Right Thing. To mete out their own punishment.
The powers that be are appalled at this. According to the law, revenge killings are unjustifiable except during war. Novelists have mixed feelings about this, each offering examples to support his viewpoint. It comes up again in The Hanging Club by Brit author Tony Parsons.
In his crime thrillers to date, his ongoing literary creation DC Max Wolfe works out of West End Central, Homicide. Divorced, he’s left raising his five-year-old daughter scout and dog Sam. His greatest admiration is for his female superior DCI Pat Whitestone, “the best detective in London”.
The author’s forte is giving the reader bits and pieces of his country’s crime history, starting off with the Central Court being the actual name of the Old Bailey. Similar cases fall into his lap. Hangings albeit not suicides. The DC notes the different kinds of hangings — accidental sex, etc.
Max’s three are labelled hate hangings. The identities of the three men are quickly established. Investigations soon determine the motives, but where was each done before being moved to public viewing, and by whom? A sizeable part of the story is about past hangings at Tyborn and Newgate prisons.
Chapters are devoted to the personal lives of all the characters — cops, the victims, suspects, not least the dog. By spelling out the cause for each hanging, it is difficult to deny that they deserved their fate. The question raised is whether people have the right to act as judge, jury and executioner.
Parsons says no. Murder doesn’t justify murder. The law is the law, and justice isn’t for us to decide.