PRINTER'S NO. 1469
No. 1283 Session of 1995
INTRODUCED BY ROBINSON, YOUNGBLOOD AND CARN, MARCH 22, 1995
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, MARCH 22, 1995
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
2 Consolidated Statutes, regulating the use of choke holds in
3 law enforcement.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Section 508(a) of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania
7 Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:
8 § 508. Use of force in law enforcement.
9 (a) Peace officer's use of force in making arrest.--
10 (1) A peace officer, or any person whom he has summoned
11 or directed to assist him, need not retreat or desist from
12 efforts to make a lawful arrest because of resistance or
13 threatened resistance to the arrest. He is justified in the
14 use of any force which he believes to be necessary to effect
15 the arrest and of any force which he believes to be necessary
16 to defend himself or another from bodily harm while making
17 the arrest. However, he is justified in using deadly force
18 only when he believes that such force is necessary to prevent
1 death or serious bodily injury to himself or such other
2 person, or when he believes both that:
3 (i) such force is necessary to prevent the arrest
4 from being defeated by resistance or escape; and
5 (ii) the person to be arrested has committed or
6 attempted a forcible felony or is attempting to escape
7 and possesses a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates
8 that he will endanger human life or inflict serious
9 bodily injury unless arrested without delay.
10 (2) A peace officer making an arrest pursuant to an
11 invalid warrant is justified in the use of any force which he
12 would be justified in using if the warrant were valid, unless
13 he knows that the warrant is invalid.
14 (3) The use of an upper body control method known as a
15 "choke hold" shall be considered deadly force and justified
16 only when deadly force is authorized.
17 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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