Huh? Rather than providing hypothetical scenarios, could you please provide specific cases/precedence or MI law(s) where "fleeing felons are essentially fair game".
It was some years back that another guy went into it in detail, but from Criminal Law I 1999 with Professor Koenig at Cooley it was specifically included in the lectures that the Michigan Supreme Court had affirmed the right to shoot feeling felons in the 1980s. Tenn vs. Garner (which we covered in Con Law I) had to do with law enforcement policies and nothing to do with the actions of non state sanctioned individuals. Those were somewhat interesting classes so I paid attention and didn't drink gin beforehand such as in Civil Procedure class.
Fleeing felons fell under the old common law doctrine which was still held to be in effect. Essentially in times of old, all felonies were punishable by death and an "outlaw" was someone outside the protections of the law.
1930something.... A guy robbed a bank in Midland. Took off - literally with a sack of money running away. A nearby dentist across the street, who for whatever reason always kept a .30-30 in his office shot the guy in the back. The anniversary of it was mentioned in the local paper when I was a kid. Perfectly legal then, and now, because it was only means at hand to stop the flight of the felon. The anniversary of the shooting was a local event of sorts, retold from time to time in the paper. Period photos showed the dentist standing grinning with his rifle being handed some sort of reward check from the bank.
I wish that there was still an archive of old posts going back further. Before when it came up there were cases from the 90s mentioned in MI and OH where the fleeing felon rule came into effect.
Law school was eleven years ago, you can call and see if Professor Koenig still teaches. She was actually quite the liberal but knew all the interesting anomalies in Michigan law ( for example, in MI coercion was considered a valid defense to murder). Whoever is teaching crim law now, if it isn't her, should be familiar with it. You can also have your state senator or representative pose it as a question to the State AG, though the AG's opinion will be just that - an opinion.
While anecdotal advice from LE, classes, etc varies greatly, the best results - in terms of advice- for a given state will come from talking to a criminal law professor in that state. Common law, precedent etc will often contain a broader definition of such things than what one can easily google up. Or talk to a lawyer that specializes in such things. If you don't have one, I remember Sal Gani (sp?) was a decent enough guy, practiced out of Lansing.
That seems to be the sort of mentality that is being promoted.
