CO H:09 CHOICE OF EVILS

State: Colorado

COLORADO JURY INSTRUCTIONS:  COLJI-Crim. (2008)

Chapter H: Affirmative Defenses

CO H:09  CHOICE OF EVILS 

It is an affirmative defense to the crime of (insert name of crime) that the conduct engaged in by the defendant was:

1. necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury,

2. which was about to occur because of a situation occasioned or developed through no conduct of the

defendant, and

3. which was of sufficient gravity that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the  desirability and urgency of avoiding the injury clearly outweighed the desirability of avoiding the injury sought to be prevented by the statute defining (insert name of crime)

 In addition to proving all of the elements of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt, the prosecution also has the burden to disprove the affirmative defense beyond a reasonable doubt.

After considering all the evidence, if you decide the prosecution has failed to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any one or more elements of the affirmative defense, you must return a verdict of not guilty.