A St. Louis grand jury has been considering evidence against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson Missouri police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown. The grand jury is expected to announce their decision any second now so I thought I would take a look at Missouri’s law-enforcement use of force law and compare it to Maine’s. In some important ways, Maine’s law gives police a broader justification and a bit more deference when they make mistakes.
Missouri’s police use of force law
Here’s the relevant Missouri statute. I’ve excerpted and edited down the most important parts:
- A law enforcement officer need not retreat or desist from efforts to effect the arrest…of a person he reasonably believes to have committed an offense.
- The use of any physical force in making an arrest is not justified under this section unless the arrest is lawful or the law enforcement officer reasonably believes the arrest is lawful.
The Missouri law provides that an officer may only use deadly force as permitted by other justifications such a self defense or:
When he reasonably believes that such use of deadly force is immediately necessary to effect the arrest and also reasonably believes that the person to be arrested
- Has committed or attempted to commit a felony; or
- Is attempting to escape by use of a deadly weapon; or
- May otherwise endanger life or inflict serious physical injury unless arrested without delay.
Maine’s police use of force law
Maine’s law is pretty similar, but it does have some important differences. You’ll note that the Missouri law allows the use of force only where the arrest is lawful or the officer reasonably believes it is. Maine law goes one better and allows the use of force “unless the officer knows that the arrest or detention is illegal.”
That means that a Maine officer making an illegal arrest is justified in using force even when their belief in the legality of the arrest is unreasonable. The justification is only breached if the officer actually knows that they are acting illegally. In Missouri, the unreasonable officer could be convicted of assault, or if deadly force was used, homicide.
Like anyone, Maine police can use deadly force if justified by self defense. But police can also use deadly force:
To effect an arrest or prevent the escape from arrest of a person when the law enforcement officer reasonably believes
- that the person has committed a crime involving the use or threatened use of deadly force,
- is using a dangerous weapon in attempting to escape or
- otherwise indicates that the person is likely to endanger seriously human life or to inflict serious bodily injury unless apprehended without delay;
Though the Missouri law allows deadly force only when making a felony arrest, Maine’s law justifies deadly force to arrest those who threaten to use deadly force; such threats are generally misdemeanors in Maine. On the other hand, the Maine law could be considered more limited since deadly force is only authorized for crimes involving some use or threats of violence. Missouri law allows deadly force to arrest for any felony or attempted felony, violent or not.
At the end of the section, Maine’s justification law has the following language:
For purposes of this paragraph, “a reasonable belief that another has committed a crime involving use or threatened use of deadly force” means such reasonable belief in facts, circumstances and the law that, if true, would constitute such an offense by that person. If the facts and circumstances reasonably believed would not constitute such an offense, an erroneous but reasonable belief that the law is otherwise justifies the use of deadly force to make an arrest or prevent an escape.
This section again broadens the justification. As we saw above, force can be used to make an illegal arrest provided the officer doesn’t actually know it’s illegal. This clause allows deadly force even when the officer’s belief that the suspect has committed a violent crime is based on an erroneous understanding of the law.
Maine is a lovely place with lots of really good police and there have only been a bit over 100 police involved shootings since 1990. But it is striking that the Maine attorney general’s office has found every one of those shootings justified. This law helped shape those outcomes.
Many think that Darren Wilson’s grand jury will not hand down an indictment and they are probably right. The case may turn on self defense and that is a related but separate issue. But if self defense doesn’t apply, and some witness accounts suggest it won’t, Wilson will need to rely of the police use of force justification. If he acted unreasonably, or misunderstood the law, the Missouri statute might not save him.