Getting arrested for DUI does not mean you will be convicted. Police misconduct, defective breathalyzers and crime lab mistakes may be enough to get your charges lessened or dismissed. Visit our page on Colorado DUI Laws to learn more.
Colorado DUI
Getting arrested for DUI does not mean you will be convicted. Police misconduct, defective breathalyzers and crime lab mistakes may be enough to get your charges lessened or dismissed. Visit our page on Colorado DUI Laws to learn more.
Colorado In-Depth
It is normal to be frightened and overwhelmed following an arrest. Therefore our lawyers are devoted to demystifying major topics in Colorado criminal defense law.
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There is no specific stand your ground statute in Colorado. However, the Colorado Supreme Court has held that you may stand your ground when defending yourself or others. You have no duty to retreat even if you have a means of escape.1
CRS 18-1-704 permits you to use proportional force that you reasonably believe is required to protect yourself or others from an assault. Reacting with deadly physical force is legally justified only in the following three situations:
When building a self-defense case, I aim to demonstrate to the decision-maker (the judge or jury) that they would have responded in the same way as you given the circumstances. The key is to show you acted out of necessity.
Example: You are walking down the street when a man comes up to you and threatens to shoot you if you do not hand over your watch. Meanwhile, the man’s hand is in his pocket holding what looks like the outline of a gun, though in fact the man is just making a gun shape with his fingers.
It would be reasonable for you to believe the man was about to assault or murder you with a gun, and therefore it would be reasonable for you to defend yourself with deadly force. It does not matter that the man does not actually have a gun as long as a reasonable person in your situation would think he did.
Colorado’s self-defense laws also allow you to use force to protect others from harm. In these situations, the legal principles are similar to those applied in self-defense cases: If you believe intervention is necessary to keep someone else safe, this can be a reasonable defense for any force you may have used.
However, defending another person can be tricky, as it may be difficult to know precisely what is occurring at the moment. The law takes into account the limited time you had to react to the threat, and as long as the situation seemed dangerous to you and would likely have seemed dangerous to others, this is usually sufficient to justify the use of force.
Note that physical force is not legally justified in either of the following three situations:
Self-defense or defense of others is also not a defense to charges of resisting arrest unless the officer is acting outside the bounds of the law (such as raping someone).
You can “stand your ground” at any location where you are legally allowed to be, though Colorado’s “Make My Day Law” under CRS 18-1-704.5 applies only to your residence. It permits you to implement physical force — including causing death — on an intruder if all of the following circumstances are true:
As long as these three conditions are met, you are protected from both criminal and civil liability. There is no express “duty to retreat” before you implement deadly force for self-defense or defense of others in your dwelling; it does not matter even if you could escape the situation without causing anyone harm.3
In practice, “Make My Day” is a stronger defense than “stand your ground” because juries are less likely to question the degree of force used and its outcome when defending your home.
Note that the “Make My Day” law applies only to intruders inside the residence. You cannot claim “May My Day” when a person is at the front door, on the roof, on the patio, or in the common area of an apartment building or hotel.
Also note that the Colorado Supreme Court refers to the Make My Day law as the force-against-intruders statute.4
CRS 18-1-706 permits you to use appropriate physical force reasonably necessary to prevent or stop what reasonably seems to be either:
If the property is not a dwelling, you may use deadly force only if:
Michael Becker has over a quarter-century's worth of experience as an attorney and more than 100 trials under his belt. He is a sought-after legal commentator and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Nevada, California, and Florida.