As usual, Lurker — an excellent answer. Thanks!
> The powers of Citizens Arrest, at least in my State, apply only to State laws which reach the Felony level meaning the offense is punishable by more than one year in prison.
I keep forgetting about that Federal law / State law thing. Here we don’t have that, nor do we have a distinction between “felony” and “misdemeanor”.
The “authorities” here frown on “Citizen’s Arrests” too — but our laws are quite clear: Sections 35-49 of the Crimes Act 1961 deal with Arrest and Use of Force, and long may it be thus!
Oh goody, another opportunity to confuse my good friend DieHard....LOL
There are State Felonies, and there are Federal Felonies.
State Felonies, like Felony Murder for example, are punishable by more than a year in a State prison. Federal Felonies are infractions of Federal law which are punishable by a term of more than one year in a Federal Prison.
So while most murders are State Felonies, those are your garden variety murders, only rarely does murder rise to the level of a Federal felony. The murders committed at the WTC on 9-11 were Federal felonies because they were done as 'acts of terror' using 'weapons of mass destruction'. The murders committed by Tim McVeigh in Oklahoma City were also Federal Felonies which bought him a very speedy execution by our standards.
It used to be that there were so few true Federal felonies that the old expression "Why don't you make a Federal case out of it!" actually had some real meaning.
These days just about everything is covered by one Federal Law, Rule, or Regulation somewhere so the expression has become decidedly un-funny IMO.
I hope this has cleared things up, or not as the case may be.
Best,
L