{"id":636,"date":"2012-08-03T13:07:03","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T13:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=636"},"modified":"2012-08-03T13:33:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T13:33:29","slug":"necessity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=636","title":{"rendered":"Necessity"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">CR07-301.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS07-301.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Necessity Defense<\/a> (06\/14\/12)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Reporter&#8217;s Note<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Vermont Supreme Court has recognized the necessity defense on numerous occasions, although it appears that the defense rarely succeeds.\u00a0 See <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Warshow<\/span>, 138 Vt. 22 (1979) (long-term hazards of nuclear power plant are not \u201cimminent\u201d); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Shotton<\/span>, 142 Vt. 558 (1983) (defendant entitled to raise defense that she drove out of necessity, to escape from husband and drive to hospital); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Squires<\/span>, 147 Vt. 430 (1986) (driving while intoxicated not justified where defendant\u2019s own conduct created the emergency); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Sullivan<\/span>, 154 Vt. 437 (1990) (insufficient evidence of necessity where hunter said he didn\u2019t affix tag to deer because he was afraid it would come off in transport); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Baker<\/span>, 154 Vt. 411 (1990) (defendant, who bears burden of proving necessity, failed to persuade jury that his driving while license suspended was necessary due to medical emergency); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Cram<\/span>, 157 Vt. 466 (1991) (defendant not entitled to raise defense of necessity, for criminal trespass onto range where GE tested Gatling guns, because he could not have reasonably believed that his actions would abate the harm); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Thayer<\/span>, 2010 VT 78, 188 Vt. 482 (defendant not entitled to raise necessity defense where she was growing marijuana for her children for medicinal purposes, but had not complied with state laws regulating such growth); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Myers<\/span>, 2011 VT 43 (defendant not entitled to instruction on necessity where he created the emergency by driving his truck on the complaining witness\u2019s property).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The elements of the defense derive from LaFave &amp; Scott, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Handbook on Criminal Law<\/span> \u00a7 50 (1972) (cited in <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Warshow<\/span>, 138 Vt. at 22).\u00a0 The elements are restated in <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Cram<\/span>, 157 Vt. 466, 469 (1991).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The necessity defense is not available if the legislature has excluded it from consideration.\u00a0 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Pollander<\/span>, 167 Vt. 301 (1997) (context of DUI civil suspension proceedings).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the case known as the \u201cTrial of the Winooski 44,\u201d the necessity defense was successfully invoked by protesters who had refused to leave Senator Stafford\u2019s office until he agreed to hold a public discussion about the government\u2019s involvement with the war in Nicaragua.\u00a0 The case is official known as <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Keller <em>et al.<\/em><\/span>, No. 1372-4-84 CnCr.\u00a0 Judge Frank Mahady instructed the jury that the State bore the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the necessity did not exist or apply.\u00a0 See the book <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Por Amor Al Pueblo: Not Guilty!<\/span> (Front Porch Publishing 1986).\u00a0 Also see the article by Linda Vance, Esq., \u201cThe Necessity Defense in Political Trials:\u00a0 An Appraisal,\u201d which appeared in <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Vermont Bar Journal &amp; Law Digest<\/span>, Vol. 12, No. 2, April 1986.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CR07-301.\u00a0 Necessity Defense (06\/14\/12) Reporter&#8217;s Note The Vermont Supreme Court has recognized the necessity defense on numerous occasions, although it appears that the defense rarely succeeds.\u00a0 See State v. Warshow, 138 Vt. 22 (1979) (long-term hazards of nuclear power plant &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=636\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":604,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-636","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/636\/revisions\/638"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}