ceywoozle replied to your post “Hi, you make pretty amazing metas, so I thought I could ask for your/or your follower’s insight. I am no law expert, but as far as I understood Sherlock did manslaughter (not murder) which would result in imprisonment for years, depending on the judge/circumstances – so why would he be basically send off to a suicide mission/his death when there is no death penalty in the UK? (and causing riots is no argument for capital punishment either as he could be placed in solitary confinement)”

it’s funny, because as much as i’m willing to let the questionable justice system slide on this, the main problem i’m having is trying to figure out what on earth is stopping sherlock from just walking away from the mission altogether.

Well…nothing, probably.

I mean we don’t have any indication that he wasn’t planning to do that.  Or even that it isn’t what Mycroft wanted him to do.  If Sherlock had just buggered off, then he’d never be able to come home and in all other respects everything he said and seemed to be expecting would still hold true.

I’m not sure he would, though.  He may swear up and down that he’s a psychopath, but Sherlock is a hound when he gets on the trail of a case.  And I think he’s got a strong sense of justice (perhaps by his own definition of justice, but see how much CAM pissed him off) and maybe even a touch of ‘Queen and country’ in his own right.