(HB 1134)
Justifiable use of force.
Section
1.
That
§
22-5-9
be amended to read as follows:
22-5-9. Any person may lawfully resist , by force or violence, the commission of any public offense as follows:
22-18-4.
To use or attempt to use or offer to use force or violence upon or toward the person
of another is not unlawful if committed either by any person about to be injured, or by any other
person in the aid or defense of a person about to be injured, in preventing or attempting to prevent
an offense against his or her own person, or in preventing any trespass or other unlawful
interference with real or personal property in his or her lawful possession. However, the force or
violence used cannot be more than that sufficient to prevent such offense.
Any person is justified
in the use of force or violence against another person when the person reasonably believes that
such conduct is necessary to prevent or terminate the other person's trespass on or other criminal
interference with real property or personal property lawfully in his or her possession or in the
possession of another who is a member of his or her immediate family or household or of a person
whose property he or she has a legal right to protect. However, the person is justified in the use of
deadly force only as provided in
§
§
22-16-34 and 22-16-35. A person does not have a duty to
retreat if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be.