State v. Warshow

State v. Warshow
Court	Vermont Supreme Court
Full case name	State of Vermont v. John Warshow et al.
Decided	December 21, 1979 (1979-12-21)
Citation	410 A.2d 1000
Court membership
Judges sitting	Albert W. Barney Jr., Rudolph J. Daley, Robert W. Larrow, Franklin S. Billings Jr., William C. Hill
Case opinions
Decision by	Barney
Concurrence	Hill
Dissent	Billings

State v. Warshow, Supreme Court of Vermont, 410 A.2d 1000 (1980), is a criminal case that set forth conditions for a defense of necessity in civil disobedience during political protests. Four requirements were described that apply to other necessity defenses.

The court wrote:

1. There must be a situation of emergency arising without fault on the part of the actor concerned;
2. this emergency must be so imminent and compelling as to raise a reasonable expectation of harm, either directly to the actor or upon those he was protecting;
3. this emergency must present no reasonable opportunity to avoid the injury without doing the criminal act;
4. the injury impending from the emergency must be of sufficient seriousness to outmeasure the criminal wrong.