re: Greg and Travis McMichaels - Could they get convicted on 2nd degree murder charges?

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Someone give me a scenario of how a citizens arrest should go down. Do the citizens arrest laws allow the citizen to arrest at gunpoint? If so, then they go free, period.

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I found the Georgia statute on a couple of sites. Here is one

It says:

A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.

Their actions don’t meet that standard in a couple of ways. Whatever the victim was doing, it wasn’t “in the presence” of the perps. Nor did they have “immediate knowledge” of the victim’s hypothetical crime. They may have suspected, but they didn’t—they couldn’t know. Also, he was neither “escaping” or “attempting to escape.” Even if he stuffed his pants with gold bricks at the house under construction, he had already escaped—he was running down the road. They would have had to try to detain him at that house. After he left there, he had escaped—past tense—and therefore could no longer be “escaping” or “attempting to escape.” You can’t create an artificial trap for which he has to escape from again. (Just to clarify, I am not in anyway saying the victim actually committed a crime. I am using worst case scenario to make the point that it doesn’t even matter if he had).

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The intent to kill the guy wasn’t there, in my opinion,

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Looking at the Georgia statute that the other guy posted a couple of pages ago, I think intent/malice can easily be argued. However, it’s not even necessary:

“(c) A person commits the offense of murder when, in the commission of a felony, he or she causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.”

Since the citizen’s arrest was not legal, the perps were “in the commission of a felony” themselves. Either aggravated assault or certainly false imprisonment:

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(a) A person commits the offense of false imprisonment when, in violation of the personal liberty of another, he arrests, confines, or detains such person without legal authority.

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So since they were “in the commission of a felony” and “caused the death of another human being,” intent doesn’t have to be proven—it is “irrespective of malice.”

Hot Carl -

Thank you for looking up the info that I was too lazy to research. Given what you found, I would say that you are correct. The citizens arrest was NOT legal so the detaining wasn’t either. Sounds like if your info is correct, then they are up a creek.

As to the second post - you left out the part where I said “IF a proper citizens arrest allows for detaining at gunpoint”. My advice is to not attempt a citizens arrest if it is only legal if you see a felony being attempted and they are escaping. I’d hate to try and stop a felon alone without a gun.