"BUT that punishment must be the logical outcome of due legal process, not vigilantism.- Don(Wyziwyg)T

The raid, or operation, that resulted in the shooting of Osama bin Laden was not a "police action", there was no over-riding duty to arrest, or capture alive. The operation came about as a result of Osama bin Laden declaring war on the United States of America and her allies (Refer to Fatwas issued by Osama bin Laden in 1996 and in 1998). The US Navy SEAL Team members were going into that compound to "get" their target (The self-declared head of the organisation that had been attacking and killing US citizens since 1993) dead or alive it did not matter one iota which. It was a straightforward military action against a self-declared enemy of the USA. There is no question of vigilantism about it.

Declare war and that crosses a line. From that point on it runs 24/7 until it has reached a conclusion one way or the other. It is entirely preposterous to say that Osama bin Laden is only the enemy and can only be shot when he is in a position to defend himself particularly inside an unfamiliar building where bin Laden had the advantage of intimate knowledge of his surroundings and where things might be. The SEAL who shot bin Laden had to make a split second decision and he made it the way he did. Not all that different from the decisions taken by the SAS Team that took out the PIRA ASU in Gibraltar in 1988 (Verdict - Lawful Killing on all three counts by a 9-2 Majority)