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Ark. Code Ann. § 5-2-604

Choice of evils

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 85 Ark. App. 111 - Whisenant v. State (2004)

Most recently applied in 102 Ark. App. 360 - PRODELL v. State (June 2008)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 504; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-504.

How often courts cite this section

198819902000200820
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) Conduct that would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable when: 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.

(3) Justification under this section shall not rest upon a consideration pertaining to the morality or advisability of the statute defining the offense charged.

(4) 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.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.