Blood feud. (Exercising the Right).

James L. Karnes Sr., 51, resides with his family in Cedar Grove, Kentucky. For many years he and a neighbor, Ronald S. Richardson, 52, had been feuding over property lines and rights. Richardson once filed a lawsuit against Karnes about boundary lines and alleged damage to the Richardson property, after which Karnes filed two trespassing complaints against Richardson. In 2000 Richardson pled guilty to trespassing and in 2001 was found guilty of the same offense. He agreed to have no further contact with members of the Karnes family.

On January 29th of this year, however, sheriff's deputies were summoned to the Karnes residence three times between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to investigate complaints that Richardson had not only trespassed again, but had fired shots near the Kames property. The deputies concluded that Richardson had not violated any laws, so could not be taken into custody. Shortly after 8:30 p.m., however, dispatchers received a fourth call, this time from Karnes' wife, reporting that Richardson had shot her husband in the stomach with a .357 Magnum handgun as the feuding duo stood near a barbed wire fence.

When Mrs. Karnes ran outside to be with her seriously wounded husband, son James Karnes Jr., 26, grabbed a 9-mm handgun and followed. Fearing that Richardson now posed a threat to his mother, he fired twice, striking his father's assailant in the chest. Richardson was pronounced dead at the scene by the Bullitt County Coroner, while the elder Karnes was airlifted to the University of Louisville Hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

Details of the tragic confrontation were submitted to a Bullitt Circuit Grand Jury to determine if young Karnes had violated any laws in protecting his mother. On April 30th, jurors ruled that, all things considered (including the record of past differences between the neighbors), he had indeed acted in justifiable self-defense.