Necessity pg 8

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Nathan

The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 13: I Had No Choice!
Necessity pg 8: Elements of Necessity

Harry the Hero counting off on his fingers

HARRY

So first, I sincerely believed that there was an immediate danger.

Second, the harm I did was smaller than the harm I tried to prevent.

One house destroyed is less than several houses destroyed

That’s why this is sometimes called the “lesser of two evils” defense.

And last, there was no other option that was less severe. The fire department wouldn’t come in time, and blowing out fires isn’t one of my powers.

Transcript

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Join the conversation! There are now 4 comments on this chapter's page 57. Lesser of Two Evils. What are your thoughts?

WJS says

So how often does this defense come up in real life? I don’t want to read too much into the choice of a superhero rather than the regular people the rest of the examples are, but…

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- Andrew M. Farrell says
  in reply to WJS
  
  I would bet that this defense motivates a lot of prosecutors to simply not bring cases.
  
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- Trev says
  in reply to WJS
  
  If Edward Snowden ever comes back to the US, I bet this’ll be his defense.
  
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Luke says

What if you ‘sincerely believe’ there is no other option, but there is?

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