Court Opinion

ID: 9681325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:48:22.326867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:33.320224
License: Public Domain

PUDLOWSKI, Judge,
dissenting.
One perhaps should be particularly circumspect when he finds himself in solitary dissent. Commissioner v. “Americans United”, Inc., 416 U.S. 752, 763, 94 S.Ct. 2053, 2059, 40 L.Ed.2d 518 (1974) (dissenting opinion). On careful reflection, however, I am concerned that my position is a valid one, and I therefore set forth my views in opposition to those of the court. POLK County, et al., Petitioners v. Russell Richard Dodson, - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 445, 70 L.Ed.2d 409 (Blackmun, dissenting) The Criminal Law Reporter Dec. 16, 1981, Vol. 30 # 11. I would reverse the judgment and reverse the trial court’s action in granting the plaintiff’s motion in limine to exclude the defendants’ evidence in support of their defense of necessity.
This case involves a limited issue in a limited situation. The question is whether a person, although a technical trespasser, may introduce evidence of the defense of necessity to save a human life.
The principle opinion is correct when it states that there are certain important requisites before the defense of necessity may be utilized. This long recognized common law1 defense in certain situations absolves a defendant from liability in a “criminal (note here we deal with a city ordinance) violation.” The defense is certainly a limited one and is now embodied in our criminal code. Section 563.026 RSMo (1978). The issue posed by this case is whether a person charged with an infraction of a city ordinance may introduce evidence of the defense of necessity2 when the object of his action was intended for the sole purpose of saving human lives.
Numerous . and extensive studies3 have indicated that human life begins at the moment of conception. The Supreme Court of the United States in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 159, 93 S.Ct. 705, 729, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973) refused to address “the difficult question” despite the scientific view that life commences at that moment. The whole history of Judeo-Christian society has but one goal, i.e., to respect, continue and preserve human life, whether at the beginning or the end. The embodiment of these principles have been instilled in our legal and moral codes for centuries.
While it is true that the doctrine of necessity or justification, as recognized by the common law and the Model Penal Codes does not permit the taking of human life to save another’s life, yet when the act charged is the lesser of two evils, the doctrine of necessity or justification has been recognized as a defense to a criminal act. City of Chicago v. Mayer, 56 Ill.2d 366, 308 N.E.2d 601 (1974); Cross v. State, 370 P.2d 371 (1962).
The two most famous cases, one English and the other American, dealing with the defense of justification are the Queen v. Dudley and Stephens, 14 Q.B. 273 (1884) *179and Holmes, 26 Fed.Cas., 360 No. 15, 383 (E.D.Pa.1842). There the defendants were not absolved from criminal responsibility because a life or lives were taken in order to save others. These cases recognize the sanctity of human life and did not authorize the taking of another’s life, even to save the lives of the defendant. But we deal here with a separate and monumental issue. Trespass, while it is an infraction and cannot be condoned, is obviously not as serious as the taking of life as in Dudley and Stephens and Holmes. The act charged (trespass) was done as appellants contend to prevent a significant harm (the taking of human life). Under the circumstances, as disclosed by the record, there was no other alternative, and the harm caused (obstruction of the doorways) was not disporpor-tionate to the harm avoided, (the taking of an innocent, human life).
No matter that the Supreme Court has authorized abortion on demand. The court did not address the issue of the commencement of life. Roe v. Wade, supra.
Our statute, drawn from the Model Penal Code, authorizes the defense of justification when “it is necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent ... private injury which is about to occur ... which is of such gravity that ... the desirability of avoiding the injury outweighs the desirability of avoiding the injury sought to be prevented by the statute (ordinance) defining the crime charged.” In my opinion the action of the defendants fall within the meaning and spirit of our statute, § 563.026 RSMo (1978), supra.
The defendants, under the circumstances here, are entitled under our criminal code to introduce evidence on this valid issue of justification of necessity. Their action falls within the area of many decisions of the common law, (See LaFave & Scott, § 50. p. 381, and Hall, George and Force, Criminal Law Procedure, 3rd Ed., ch. 8, p. 553) and within the provisions of the criminal code adopted by the legislature in 1979.
The thrust of my whole dissent is based not only on the accepted legal principle dealing with the defense of justification of necessity but is based on the common law view of the sanctity and uniqueness of human life which is succinctly embodied in Shakespeare:
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.” 4
Therefore, I would reverse the judgment and remand for a plenary trial to afford the defendants an opportunity to present the recognized penal and common law elements of their defense of justification of necessity.

. Bracton in 2 De Legibus, f. 121 at 277 (Twiss ed. 1379).

. “The doctrine of ‘necessity’ and ‘coercion’ are a tacit admission of man’s impotence against some of the greatest evils that assail him, as well as a measure of his moral obligation even in extremes.” Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law, Second Edition p. 416 (1960).

.See, Nathanson, Deeper into Abortion, 291 New Eng.J. of Med. 1189 (1974); Le Jeune and Lily, The Tiniest Humans (1977); Thomas, Introduction to Human Embryology (1968); Langman, Medical Embryology, Human Development — Normal and Abnormal, (1963); Moore, Before We Are Born, Basic Embryology and Birth Defects, (1974).

. Hamlet, Act II, Sc. II.