After a bad break-up, Dan drives to a local bar, where he begins drinking. He hasn’t planned in advance how he is going to get home. If he drinks too much to drive, he thinks, he will summon a ride on his smart phone. Dan is on his seventh drink in two hours when a man storms through the front door of the bar, waving an assault rifle and threatening to shoot up the place. Dan bolts for the nearest exit, jumps in his car, and drives away. Less than a half-mile away from the bar, Dan runs through a red light and is stopped by a law enforcement officer. Dan is subsequently charged with driving while impaired. At trial, he asks the judge to instruct the jury on the defense of necessity. Is Dan entitled to that instruction? Yes, Dan is entitled to an instruction on the defense of necessity. This defense, like other common law affirmative defense, such as duress and entrapment, is available in a prosecution for driving while impaired. State v. Hudgins, 167 N.C. App. 705, 709 (2005). The rationale for the necessity defense is that “‘the law ought to promote the achievement of higher values at the expense of lesser values, and [that] sometimes the greater good for society will be accomplished by violating the literal language of the criminal law.’” State v. Thomas, 103 N.C. App. 264, 265 (1991) (quoting W. LaFave & A. Scott, Handbook on Criminal Law § 50, at 382 (1972)). Thus, [...]
Faculty Coordinators
