Would You Go To Jail If...

[Sheek]

Quick, random question that has to do with something similar to self-defense laws in the states.. I'm curious how you would be charged/punished if you defended *others.*

Scenario:

You're walking on the sidewalk and see a man choking a woman in an alleyway. You run up & kick the man in the throat, crushing his trachea & causing him to die of asphyxiation. The woman is okay, and agrees to testify on your behalf that you defended her from what would probably have been her death.

What would police do upon arriving at the scene? How would you be charged? Would you be put in jail (even for temporary holding)?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light on this!

[Vapor]

People are generally not prosecuted for using lethal force to prevent murder or rape.

[SplitApart]

Yeah, I think there's something like a good Samaritan law that protects people when they do the right thing even when it would conflict with normal laws.

[sampanye]

I don't know about the law in your state but here in NSW, Australia, the Crimes Act 1900 states:

418 Self-defence—when available

(1) A person is not criminally responsible for an offence if the person carries out the conduct constituting the offence in self-defence.
(2) A person carries out conduct in self-defence if and only if the person believes the conduct is necessary:
(a) to defend himself or herself or another person, or
(b) to prevent or terminate the unlawful deprivation of his or her liberty or the liberty of another person...
and the conduct is a reasonable response in the circumstances as he or she perceives them.

421 Self-defence—excessive force that inflicts death

(1) This section applies if:
(a) the person uses force that involves the infliction of death, and
(b) the conduct is not a reasonable response in the circumstances as he or she perceives them, but the person believes the conduct is necessary:
(c) to defend himself or herself or another person, or
(d) to prevent or terminate the unlawful deprivation of his or her liberty or the liberty of another person.
(2) The person is not criminally responsible for murder but, on a trial for murder, the person is to be found guilty of manslaughter if the person is otherwise criminally responsible for manslaughter.

Of course, the law WILL differ (maybe only a little) in your state/country, but generally you do have a legal defense of self defence, which (despite the word 'self') does include the defense of another.

You MAY be charged for murder, in which case you can claim you were acting in self defense and then the onus of proof is on the prosecution (ie: the State) to prove that your actions were NOT self defence. I'm not sure what the cops would do upon arriving at the scene, but as always the best thing YOU could do would be cooperate with the police, voluntarily return to the station and make a statement, etc.

[TrueStory]

Depends on your record and the judge/jury.

Sucks if that happened to you.

You probably wont be charged.

[_Shift_]

just to be safe i wouldn't go to any extent proving you had a clear mind at the time, like taking the time to reload or stopping to tie your shoe... then continuing the pwning. you saw it happening and got carried away for a second, blacked out, and prevented something from happening to this poor woman(hb perhaps? lol), the jury will side with you.

[Sheek]

Nice, so I'm off the hook (kidding).


Thanks for the replies guys.

[Bosshog83]

Couple of points:

Generally lethal force is considered to be a gun or something likely to kill or cause serious harm. Using kicks and punches even if brutal is generally not considered deadly force.

I'm an armed guard, and in my job lethal force is only justified when there is a serious and imminent threat. EG someone has a knife, you can use deadly force. If they are unarmed it's a lot tougher unless they are like 7' and on drugs and you're 5 foot and little. Lots to take into consideration.

In Queensland where I work, a situation like you described would be self defence on anothers behalf (almost identical to what sampayne wrote). Unless you are trained especially and you know that kick would cause death, and did it with the intent of causing death, then it would definitley come under the category of reasonable force