HB 135 – AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE

27Mar2013… 0341h

2013 SESSION

13-0281

04/09

HOUSE BILL 135

AN ACT relative to physical force in defense of a person and relative to the definition of non-deadly force.

SPONSORS: Rep. Shurtleff, Merr 11

COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety

AMENDED ANALYSIS

This bill eliminates the provision allowing a person to use deadly force anywhere he or she has a right to be.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

27Mar2013… 0341h

13-0281

04/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Thirteen

AN ACT relative to physical force in defense of a person and relative to the definition of non-deadly force.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Physical Force in Defense of a Person. Amend RSA 627:4, III to read as follows:

III. A person is not justified in using deadly force on another to defend himself or herself or a third person from deadly force by the other if he or she knows that he or she and the third person can, with complete safety:

(a) Retreat from the encounter, except that he or she is not required to retreat if he or she is within his or her dwelling[,] or its curtilage, [or anywhere he or she has a right to be,] and was not the initial aggressor; or

(b) Surrender property to a person asserting a claim of right thereto; or

(c) Comply with a demand that he or she abstain from performing an act which he or she is not obliged to perform; nor is the use of deadly force justifiable when, with the purpose of causing death or serious bodily harm, the person has provoked the use of force against himself or herself in the same encounter; or

(d) If he or she is a law enforcement officer or a private person assisting the officer at the officer's direction and was acting pursuant to RSA 627:5, the person need not retreat.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.