Most states require that prosecutors or judges determine that a resident's life was reasonably seen to be in danger, or that a felony was about to be committed, before deadly force can be justified.
Of the 300,000 or so people arrested in California each year for felonies, about a third are never convicted and many are never charged.
Arguments dragged on about the use of the word "black" versus "African-American," about construction companies not hiring "brothers with felony records," about why only houses on the poor side of St. Charles Avenue were red-tagged for demolition.
Felony is about an ordinary man who makes a terrible decision.
"The State Board needs to thoroughly investigate these complaints to determine if the felony statute about purposeful misinformation was violated," Hall said in a statement Friday.
"You simply have to show you had a reasonable belief that one of the forcible felonies was about to be committed and you did what you thought was necessary to stop it".
He also wrote that there had been 73 misdemeanor and felony complaints and about 50 arrests since the occupation began.
Officer Patrick Pogan, who resigned from the force shortly after the clash on July 25 , 2008 was convicted two weeks ago of a felony for lying about the confrontation in a criminal complaint.
Trevor Melby, Mr. Hansen's lawyer, did not deny his client had a criminal history, saying, "The thing about felony convictions is they follow you to the grave, but even if he had 15 felony convictions it wouldn't change the tapes".
Emma Tennant's Felony, another narrative about the eminent American, was reissued that year in paperback, and a South African novel on him was doing the rounds of the publishers.
