An elderly shopkeeper who stabbed to death a burglar will not face charges, as prosecutors reassured homeowners they can use reasonable force to protect themselves, their families and their property.

Good!

Totally agree

+1. It really never should have reached that point.

Actually I have no porblem with the police investigating - afterall someone was killed - so long as common sense is used

No problems with investigating but why arrest someone and ruin their lives for how many months this takes?

You'll probably find that if someone dies from anything other than natural causes that either someone or something was at fault. Therefore the police are called in to investigate, and upon their findings the CPS decide if charges should be pressed.

In a decent and competent society the shop keeper should have known that his actions were appropriate and that there would be no repercussions, and that at the end of the investigation there would be no chance of further charges. If that was the case then there would be nothing to worry about, and so the time scale would represent only due process.

Not being able to fly to the US, what a loss.

Yes we should encourage the investigations, but until the case actually is going to go to court why arrest them? This florist will have had his DNA and fingerprints taken, and will now be on a no-fly list to some places, and yet is completely innocent. He will not be able to get the DNA and fingerprints destroyed and will forever remain in the PNC.

The keeping of DNA / Fingerprints is a seperate issue. Personally if you are not ultimatly charged then they should be destroyed within a fix period of time - say 6 months

IF you are charged and convicted they should still be destroyed after a period of time - say 2 x your sentence so if you were sentenced to 5 yrs in jail your DNA / fingerprints would remain on file for 10 yrs. Certain crimes could have an unlimited period (murder etc)

Totally agree