XIII_rocks posted...
Oh right fair enough on the punching thing. I'll let that one go.
Intent DOES matter though. I mean the bully was punching the kid, and the kid was walking away from him. I don't think he was trying to kill the guy. Not that that makes it OK, but I don't think it's the same as stabbing somebody. I mean you have to know that's going to do more damage than a few bruises, while you wouldn't necessarily know that with a back-of-the-head punch. I believe there's a distinction there.
Hmmm, at first I was going to disagree that the bully's intent was not to kill (nothing I've seen so far has convinced me that the bully was not going to kill this kid), but actually I'm going to go beyond that. If you're being attacked, and you can't tell if your assailant is trying to kill you or not, you shouldn't have to guess - you should be able to respond with lethal force immediately. Besides that, you should be able to defend yourself from severe harm in the same way. as defending yourself from death. I don't know for sure if the bully was going to try to kill the kid, but he sure as hell was going to badly injure him. In my opinion, lethal force is a legitimate response to this situation, as well.