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The Defense of Necessity

By Baker Associates

A major theme underlying Tennessee?s criminal code is that it is designed to protect Tennesseans from harm, especially serious harm such as death or serious bodily injury. For example, Tennessee?s criminal code would be doing Tennesseans a disservice if it were to punish them with a criminal charge, such as assault, for taking an action that ordinarily may be a criminal act but in the instant case actually operates to protect someone from even greater harm. For example, it would ordinarily be a crime to shove someone out a window, but such an act may not be criminal if it was done in order to get that person out of a burning house. Thus, Tennessee law contains the doctrine of necessity in order to distinguish criminal acts from those helpful acts society wants to encourage...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on August 12, 2010 (boomark / email).