Title 12.1 — Criminal Code

1. Except as otherwise expressly provided, justification or excuse under this chapter is a defense. 2. If a person is justified or excused in using force against another, but he recklessly or negligently injures or creates a risk of injury to other persons, the justifications aff…

1. Conduct engaged in by a public servant in the course of the person's official duties is justified when it is required or authorized by law. 2. A person who has been directed by a public servant to assist that public servant is justified in using force to carry out the public s…

A person is justified in using force upon another person to defend himself against danger of imminent unlawful bodily injury, sexual assault, or detention by such other person, except that: 1. A person is not justified in using force for the purpose of resisting arrest, execution…

A person is justified in using force upon another person in order to defend anyone else if: 1. The person defended would be justified in defending himself; and 2. The person coming to the defense has not, by provocation or otherwise, forfeited the right of self-defense. 12.1-05-0…

Force is justified if it is used to prevent or terminate an unlawful entry or other trespass in or upon premises, or to prevent an unlawful carrying away or damaging of property.

1. An individual is not justified in using more force than is necessary and appropriate under the circumstances. 2. Deadly force is justified in the following instances: a. When it is expressly authorized by law or occurs in the lawful conduct of war. b. When used in lawful self-…

1. An individual who uses force as permitted under this chapter is immune from civil liability for the use of the force to the individual against whom force was used or to that individual's estate unless that individual is a law enforcement officer who was acting in the performan…

A person's conduct is excused if he believes that the facts are such that his conduct is necessary and appropriate for any of the purposes which would establish a justification or excuse under this chapter, even though his belief is mistaken. However, if his belief is negligently…

Except as otherwise expressly provided, a person's good faith belief that conduct does not constitute a crime is an affirmative defense if he acted in reasonable reliance upon a statement of the law contained in: 1. A statute or other enactment. 2. A judicial decision, opinion, o…

1. In a prosecution for any offense, it is an affirmative defense that the actor engaged in the proscribed conduct because he was compelled to do so by threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury to himself or to another. In a prosecution for an offense which does not const…

1. It is an affirmative defense that the defendant was entrapped into committing the offense. 2. A law enforcement agent perpetrates an entrapment if, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the commission of a crime, the law enforcement agent induces or encourages and, as a dir…

In this chapter: 1. "Deadly force" means force which a person uses with the intent of causing, or which he knows creates a substantial risk of causing, death or serious bodily injury. A threat to cause death or serious bodily injury, by the production of a weapon or otherwise, so…