Muller v. State
Court of Appeals of Alaska
196 P.3d 815 (2008)
Don Muller (defendant) and several fellow war protesters entered Senator Ted Stevens's office intending to read a list of over 9,000 Iraq war casualties, and when the office closed with roughly 8,500 names still unread, staff and a security guard repeatedly asked the protesters to leave and return the next morning; they refused, prompting a call to police and Muller's arrest for second-degree criminal trespass. At his pro se trial, Muller presented a necessity defense, but the judge rejected his proposed jury instruction in favor of the judge's own version, to which Muller did not object; the jury rejected the defense and convicted him, and he appealed based on the allegedly erroneous instruction.
Whether a necessity defense applies when the defendant's conduct was intended to prevent a significant evil, no adequate alternative was available, and the harm caused was not disproportionate to the harm avoided.