Fair enough, but what’s everyone else’s excuse?

Seriously, out here in the real world, where the “extras” the bad guy kills all have names and families, someone half as bad as the Joker would have developed a really bad case of lead poisoning while “trying to escape”, and (since he actually has escaped numerous times) 99.9% of people would give the guy who did it a high-five, a slap on the back, an attaboy, and a medal.

When the legal system can’t give justice, eventually the mob gives it a go. The police don’t exist to protect the people from criminals, they exist to prevent mob justice (which works better than nothing, but has lots of collateral damage and hurts a lot of innocent bystanders).

Heck, even Spielberg could understand this point. Of all the bad plot points in the “prequel” movies, he at least got the idea that there was no form of justice available for Palpatine other than summary execution – “He controls the courts!”