If someone is being led to his death by bes din (a Jewish court), is he supposed to try to escape, since, in general, saving one's own life is paramount? More: normally, we say that if someone is out to kill another, the latter can kill him to defend himself. Does that apply here: is the doomed man allowed, if necessary to save himself, to kill the employees of bes din who are leading him to his death?
Answer
About your second question, defending himself by killing his executioners: Mishneh Lemelech (Hil. Rotze'ach Ushemiras Nefesh 1:15) implies that no. He says that in cases where extrajudicial killing is permitted (e.g., a goel hadam pursuing a murderer, or a zealot attempting to kill a Jew consorting with a gentile woman), then the intended victim may indeed protect himself by killing the assailant; but not where the killing is a mitzvah, as would be true of a person convicted of a capital crime.
Not sure about escaping, although perhaps we can prove that, at the very least, it's not a mitzvah and may indeed be a sin. In the story of Shimon ben Shatach's son who was convicted based on false testimony (Rashi to Sanhedrin 44b ד"ה דבעיא, and Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 6:3), we see that he willingly went to his death without making any attempt to flee.
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