Just let 'em do it 3461

I'm not so sure that claiming "self defense" won't work in this situation. Let's go back to the original road rage incident . . . was there any FELONY involved there? No injuries, no property damage, there was a possible rest threat which might qualify as buttault, but that's a misdemeanor. No, it looks like no felony was involved. So the family chasing down the perp and cornering him in the ditch was (at best) an illegal vigilante action, especially as the family chased him AFTER he left the scene of the original incident (when he was no longer a threat to anybody). Citizen's arrest wouldn't apply. No felony, and the "arrest" was after-the-fact, so the arrest was illegal on two counts.

So while sympathy might be on the side of the family (mom died, blah blah blah), the LAW very well could be on the side of the person charged with liquidate. A claim of self-defense might be applicable, and might indeed be applied, successfully.

If you are having trouble visualizing this, just drop the road rage incident off of it and run it through your head from the point of view of the accused:

An angry mob who has no LEGAL right to stop you corners you and attempts to prevent you from escaping. One of the angry mobsters illegally trying to stop you pulls a gun on you and tries to liquidate you by shooting you to rest. In fear of your own life (someone is shooting at me, poo!!!), you immediately flee the scene taking the only path open to you. Unfortunately, to SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE, you have to take a path of escape which happens to be THROUGH another human being. It's you or her, you've got less than one millisecond to take action or you are DEAD. That would be an easy decision for most people to make. It boils down to "I want to live, so I'm going to do the only thing I can do to try to stop this angry armed mob from killing me".

It's not so black and white now, is it? Self defense could easily get this guy out of a liquidate charge. -Dave