Justifiable Homicide (ePub)

Justifiable homicide--or is it? The law defines justifiable homicide as the killing of another in circumstances that absolve the perpetrator of legal consequences. The most obvious circumstance would be self-defense. However, none of the six cases presented here are actually based on any imminent threat to the perpetrator. Thus, five of the six cases depicted in Justifiable Homicide result in a trial where the outcome is not at all certain.

I've written about thirty novels and these tales are among my favorites. It's enjoyable to give the reader an opportunity to engage in the problems inherent in justifiable homicide. How would you, for example, have voted if you were on the jury in any of these cases? And why?

Another theme that often arises in cases based on justifiable homicide is jury nullification. Here is a good definition of jury nullification: Jury nullification refers to a jury's deliberate rejection of the evidence because the result dictated by law is contrary to the jury's sense of justice, morality, or fairness. Essentially, with jury nullification, the jury returns a "not guilty" verdict even if jurors believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant broke the law.

There is no need to read these six novels in the order in which they are presented. I think you will find this anthology more enjoyable if you read these novels in the order that interests you the most. If you go to the website where you bought this book, you can find individual descriptions for each of the six novels in Justifiable Homicide. However, I will give very brief descriptions of these six novels.

1/ Hallucinations: A successful real estate agent passes out and dies during an alcohol fueled party. It isn't long before detectives discover that someone has dosed his drinks with a fatal amount of a powerful sleep medication. But was this person justified in doing so?

2/ Blood and Blackmail: A mother takes revenge on a man who brutalized her daughter. Later, she stumbles onto a bizarre defense that encompasses both the genius and the fool.

3/ The Trial of Eugene Bishop: An undercover cop kills a man who is attempting to buy a gun from him. Eugene claims he shot the man in self-defense, but it soon appears that he may have murdered him in an attempt to save innocent lives.

4/ Frontier Justice: A female police officer shoots and kills a suspect in her custody. She claims self-defense, but the prosecutor has good reason to believe the suspect was murdered in cold blood.

5/ The Great Barrington Train Wreck: A homeless guy gets back on his feet and becomes a cab driver. Before long, he falls in love with his most beautiful fare, who leads him down a treacherous path after she kills her abusive and racist father.

6/ The Trial of Shada King: A female lawyer is raped and then threatened by a man she previously had an affair with. Wearing a wire, she confronts him at his condo and ends up shooting him to death. The wire seems to confirm her innocence, but the prosecutor is convinced that the wire is part of an elaborate hoax designed to prove the shooter's innocence.

The fact that I am selling six novels for one dollar and forty nine cents does not mean that I consider them to be of low quality. Each book has been proofread at least eight times, and also, a month or so after publishing the e-book version, I always read the paperback version, after which I usually make some additional corrections. Naturally, since I'm not perfect, you may find a few errors, but you won't find many!

Since I'm not a name brand and do virtually no advertising, the best way for me to reach readers is to price my books so that they are available to all. I'm interested in the art of writing and making my novels widely available. Any money I receive through writing has no interest to me. That may be hard to believe, but it's the truth!