A person is justified in the use of reasonable force when the person reasonably believes that such force is necessary to defend oneself or another from any actual or imminent use of unlawful force.
Iowa Code § 704.3
Defense of self or another
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case United States v. Boman (2017)
Most recently applied in United States v. Austin Mallory (June 2024)
[C51, §2773 – 2775; R60, §4442 – 4444; C73, §4112 – 4114; C97, §5102 – 5104; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §12921 – 12923; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, §691.1, 691.2(1), 691.…
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: Iowa Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Iowa statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.