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5-2-604. Choice of evils.

Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities

5-2-604. Choice of evils.

5-2-604. Choice of evils. (a) Conduct that would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable when: (1) The conduct is necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury; and (2) According to ordinary standards of reasonableness, the desirability and urgency of avoiding the imminent public or private injury outweigh the injury sought to be prevented by the law proscribing the conduct. (b) Justification under this section shall not rest upon a consideration pertaining to the morality or advisability of the statute defining the offense charged. (c) If the actor is reckless or negligent in bringing about the situation requiring a choice of evils or in appraising the necessity for his or her conduct, the justification afforded by this section is unavailable in a prosecution for any offense for which recklessness or negligence, as the case may be, suffices to establish a culpable mental state.

Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 5-2-604

Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. A text match is a research starting point; applicability is not established.

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Record provenance

Stable record: arkansas_code:legal_authorities:5-2-604
Source file: gov.ar.code.title.05.odt
Pages: Not recorded – Not recorded
Passage SHA-256: d8ab0b924d4019b8047e08847d8ce2ebd906c17d37cc132d00200bc698fa6f37

Source location: content.xml paragraph 2838

Stored source content

5-2-604. Choice of evils. (a) Conduct that would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable when: (1) The conduct is necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury; and (2) According to ordinary standards of reasonableness, the desirability and urgency of avoiding the imminent public or private injury outweigh the injury sought to be prevented by the law proscribing the conduct. (b) Justification under this section shall not rest upon a consideration pertaining to the morality or advisability of the statute defining the offense charged. (c) If the actor is reckless or negligent in bringing about the situation requiring a choice of evils or in appraising the necessity for his or her conduct, the justification afforded by this section is unavailable in a prosecution for any offense for which recklessness or negligence, as the case may be, suffices to establish a culpable mental state.

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