… you don’t know anything about who I am, nor about who and what I’ve loved, and lost. You speak with zero knowledge or authority on that matter.

“Murder is okay when I’m cool with it,” is not the rationale of anyone with a conscience or empathy, for immediately obvious reasons. Even small children can recognize that sentiment is either utter moral depravity … or insanity. Or both. It’s certainly not an acceptable ethical stance when one is in their right mind. (I imagine this father was very much not in his right mind after what he saw, though his mind was right-enough to plot out a murder and to attempt to evade the legal consequence of it. Thus, his mind is right-enough, now, to stand trial for what he’s done. To face the consequences society has created for committing premeditated murder.)

There are always reasons for murder and other violent crimes … but no excuses. Literally nothing excuses murder. Nor can anything. It is a crime that has to be assessed fairly and justly — with equity. Meaning whenever it happens, not just when it happens to people we like or with whom we sympathize. For immediately obvious reasons, justice has to work equitably, or what even is the point of attempting it? Justice that isn’t equitable isn’t justice … it’s just a privilege to some and a lack thereof for others.

I’ll leave it there. It’s not my wheelhouse — pontificating on basic morality to nor trying to jump-start the conscience of a grown-ass adult. Nor is explaining to said adult why “don’t murder anyone” has to be an iron-clad societal rule. A baseline rule, so that the “strong” don’t use their strength to go around murdering, raping, harming the “weak.” I can only hope your reply was more reaction(ary) than a genuine response from the place where your conscience lives. Good luck and be well.