Was her daughter killing another man perfectly justified or not?

Cheryl Crane has always maintained that she did not intend to kill Johnny Stompanato. She picked up the knife because she was afraid for her mother. She didn't plan it, it just happened. Apparently, the jury thought so too. Keep in mind, it was found that the knife was inserted sharp side up, which shows that Cheryl had little experience with knives.

Stompanato had verbally and physically abused Lana Turner in the past and made violent threats against her, Cheryl, and her mother. Clearly, he could have had Lana assaulted or worse had he chosen to.

He actually ran at Cheryl, who was holding the knife sharp side up and he ran into her knife.

You, a salty water ocean wave.
Knock, me down and kiss my face.

Justified, in my opinion. I'm reading "Detour" now and Cheryl was obviously scared for her mother and for herself and after a long night of listening to Johnny terrorize her mother, she walked into the room with a knife to scare him and ended up stabbing him. Whether she actually stabbed him or he "walked into the knife" like she claims, I think she was justified because she was defending her mom. Johnny was an abusive dirt bag and Mickey Cohen's hoodlum, so IMO he had it coming.

He actually placed the knife in Cheryl's hand and screamed "I deserve to die!" before throwing himself onto it.



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http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m127/tubesteak69/Divas_Who_Drink-1.jpg

Yeah, he was a mobster and he'd been beating Lana up and trying to get in her 14-year-old daughter's pants, maybe his mother loved him but otherwise humanity was better off with him gone.

IMHO the "justifiable homicide" verdict was correct, the man was beating the crap out of her mother and was a physical threat to Cheryl as well. I'm no fan of vigilante justice, but this actually was an unpremeditated defensive action.