Missouri Approved Instructions–Criminal (MAI-CR) 4th
408.20 JUSTIFICATION: EMERGENCY MEASURES
PART A – GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
One of the issues (as to Count _____) (in this case) is whether the conduct of the defendant was justified as an emergency measure. In this state, conduct which would otherwise be an offense can be lawful in certain circumstances.
In order for conduct which would otherwise be an offense to be lawful, it must be necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury which is about to occur through no fault of the defendant and this injury must be so serious that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the desirability of avoiding the injury outweighs the harm or injury sought to be prevented by the statute making the conduct an offense.
The necessity and justification for the conduct, however, cannot be based only on the morality or advisability of the statute making such conduct an offense.
PART B – SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS
(As to Count _____, if) (If) you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant engaged in the conduct submitted in Instruction No. _____, you will then decide whether that conduct was lawful as an emergency measure.
If you find and believe from the evidence that it is more probably true than not true:
First, that through no fault of defendant imminent danger of
[Describe danger of public or private injury that defendant sought to avoid.]
was about to occur, and
Second, that the conduct of defendant, as submitted in
Instruction No. _____, was necessary as an emergency measure to avoid such injury, and
Third, that such injury, then imminent, was of such gravity that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the desirability of avoiding the injury outweighed the harm caused or threatened by defendant’s conduct as submitted in Instruction No. _____, then you must find the defendant not guilty (under Count _____) by reason of justifiable emergency measures.
(v. 7-1-17)