It won't be brought to light how evil that person was, it will only be seen as some horrible person killed them.

Along with having nothing to lose, the person will also need to be OK with being seen as a villian, not a hero.

That's actually one of the problems with the punisher comics. Sure, the people he kills are guilty, but the public and cops have no way of knowing that. Lots of them are considered law abiding citizens. And even if it comes out they were corrupt, they still never had a trial.

That's why I don't by the whole "the cops look the other way for the punisher" and in post 9/11 NYC with all that surveillance, no way he can walk down the street without being caught.

As a real life example lets talk about the piece of garbage that killed the 9 African American people in the church. Clearly this person met the criteria of perceiving himself as having nothing to lose. However, his own words show that he felt there was no way he could get close enough to a get of gang bangers to take them out, so he chose an easier target.

However, lets say he put a little more effort into his plan. Let's say he eventually is able to identity at least one drug dealer by name. (maybe he gets the info from a junkie who just made a purchase) Anyway, maybe he lures the dealer to a private place using a ruse. (he's an insurance agent who has a check for 800 dollars for him, but he needs to sign some paperwork)

SO he gets the single drug dealer into a private place. He then pulls a gun on him and ties him up for more information. An Easy thing to do is just have the drug dealer call his other friends and bring them other to the private location one at a time.

Long story short, if the racist had done that, even so cold blooded that way, he would have been held a hero by a lot of people.