I. like Zan, read this thread when it first came up and have been following it for a bit. I at first was cheering on the old granny but thought that I would think about the situation a bit more before responding. But even after seeing others opinions and considering it myself for some time I find myself really on the fence about it.
I thought about the grandma first. I thought first that her being a grandmother made me think of my grandmother, baking cookies and bread, teaching me how to garden and so on. Could I put my grandmother in jail? Heck no! If this person had been say a brother, father, uncle or even grandfather, I get a whole different feeling and it would be easier understand their sentence.
Then I thought about the rapist. Did he deserve it? I really thought about this and went from side to side. Yes, he deserved every bit of it - well I guess that answer is the problem in the first place. If I think he deserves it then that opens a door and gives myself permission to let things like that happen. No, he didn't deserve being hunted down and shot - well that just makes me think of the woman that he raped... the actual victim... it surprised me that it took this long to get to her which I think is the biggest problem.
The story of granny hunting down the rapist takes everything away from that women. It takes her completely out of the equation.
So lets consider her in this.
Without grannys involvement: Women gets brutally raped. Police take their sweet time finding him but do eventually. Rapist goes to court where the jury hears the women's horrid story about her attack. The jury puts the guy away, hopefully for a long time. The woman will still think of the day that he will eventually be released. She will still have nightmares for a long time. She will think about that man every time she is alone and feels vulnerable. He's in jail, she still loses.
With granny.
Woman gets brutally raped. Police take their sweet time finding him, in the meantime, granny puts down her knitting needles, picks up a gun, hunts the ****** down, blows his balls off (while still missing all vital organs and arteries) goes home to watch Matlock and continue knitting. Rapist heads to hospital where police catch up with him. Police go and arrest granny. granny goes to court - gets off because who aside from Mikey is going to convict her?? Rapist goes to court - gets convicted but probably gets a reduced sentence because he has already suffered. and the woman? Well she gets to know that he will be out of jail a lot sooner, she will still think about him everyday, every time she is alone and vulnerable. She will still have nightmares. She still loses.
So really does it matter either way. She still lost!