2021 Vermont Statutes
Title 13 - Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Chapter 53 - Homicide
§ 2305. Justifiable homicide
§ 2305. Justifiable homicide
If a person kills or wounds another under any of the circumstances enumerated below, he or she shall be guiltless:
(1) in the just and necessary defense of the person's own life or the life of the person's spouse, parent, child, sibling, guardian, or ward; or
(2) if the person reasonably believed that he or she was in imminent peril and that it was necessary to repel that peril with deadly force, in the forceful or violent suppression of a person attempting to commit murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, or robbery; or
(3) in the case of a law enforcement officer as defined in 20 V.S.A. § 2351(a) using force in compliance with 20 V.S.A. § 2368(b)(1)-(2) and (5) or deadly force in compliance with 20 V.S.A. § 2368(c)(1)-(4) and (6). (Amended 1983, No. 23, § 2; 2019, No. 165 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. July 1, 2021; 2021, No. 27, § 4, eff. Oct. 1, 2021.)
