I've just finished up a rough draft of my The Right to Defy Criminal Demands article, and I thought I'd serialize it here, minus most of the footnotes (which you can see in the full PDF). I'd love to hear people's reactions and recommendations, since there's still plenty of time to edit it. You can also see previous posts (and any future posts, as they come up), here.
[* * *]
Thirteen states and D.C. continue to recognize a so-called "duty to retreat" as a limitation on the right to use lethal force in self-defense.[1] The Model Penal Code captures the standard definition well: Even in defending against threat of death or serious bodily harm, deadly force may not be used if "the actor knows that he can avoid the necessity of using such force with complete safety by retreating." And this likely means that the defenders can't return to the place from which they retreated, at least for some time.
