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Use of force in self-protection - 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 505

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     § 505.  Use of force in self-protection.
        (a)  Use of force justifiable for protection of the person.--
     The use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable
     when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary
     for the purpose of protecting himself against the use of
     unlawful force by such other person on the present occasion.
        (b)  Limitations on justifying necessity for use of force.--
            (1)  The use of force is not justifiable under this
        section:
                (i)  to resist an arrest which the actor knows is
            being made by a peace officer, although the arrest is
            unlawful; or
                (ii)  to resist force used by the occupier or
            possessor of property or by another person on his behalf,
            where the actor knows that the person using the force is
            doing so under a claim of right to protect the property,
            except that this limitation shall not apply if:
                    (A)  the actor is a public officer acting in the
                performance of his duties or a person lawfully
                assisting him therein or a person making or assisting
                in a lawful arrest;
                    (B)  the actor has been unlawfully dispossessed
                of the property and is making a reentry or recaption
                justified by section 507 of this title (relating to
                use of force for the protection of property); or
                    (C)  the actor believes that such force is
                necessary to protect himself against death or serious
                bodily injury.
            (2)  The use of deadly force is not justifiable under
        this section unless the actor believes that such force is
        necessary to protect himself against death, serious bodily
        injury, kidnapping or sexual intercourse compelled by force
        or threat; nor is it justifiable if:
                (i)  the actor, with the intent of causing death or
            serious bodily injury, provoked the use of force against
            himself in the same encounter; or
                (ii)  the actor knows that he can avoid the necessity
            of using such force with complete safety by retreating or
            by surrendering possession of a thing to a person
            asserting a claim of right thereto or by complying with a
            demand that he abstain from any action which he has no
            duty to take, except that:
                    (A)  the actor is not obliged to retreat from his
                dwelling or place of work, unless he was the initial
                aggressor or is assailed in his place of work by
                another person whose place of work the actor knows it
                to be; and
                    (B)  a public officer justified in using force in
                the performance of his duties or a person justified
                in using force in his assistance or a person
                justified in using force in making an arrest or
                preventing an escape is not obliged to desist from
                efforts to perform such duty, effect such arrest or
                prevent such escape because of resistance or
                threatened resistance by or on behalf of the person
                against whom such action is directed.
            (3)  Except as required by paragraphs (1) and (2) of this
        subsection, a person employing protective force may estimate
        the necessity thereof under the circumstances as he believes
        them to be when the force is used, without retreating,
        surrendering possession, doing any other act which he has no
        legal duty to do or abstaining from any lawful action.
        (c)  Use of confinement as protective force.--The
     justification afforded by this section extends to the use of
     confinement as protective force only if the actor takes all
     reasonable measures to terminate the confinement as soon as he
     knows that he safely can, unless the person confined has been
     arrested on a charge of crime.

        Cross References.  Section 505 is referred to in section 506
     of this title.

Last modified: November 27, 2007