Page:Schnarr v. State, 2018 Ark. 333.pdf/6

 Statutes Annotated section 41-514 (Repl. 1977), and the language is identical to that in section 5-2-614. The commentary to Ark. Stats. Ann. § 41-514 provides that the justification defense is based on Model Penal Code section 3.09(2) and explains the justification defense:

Section 41-514 applies to situations in which the force is recklessly or negligently employed. Under such circumstances the defense of justification cannot be successfully interposed in a prosecution for an offense established by proof of reckless or negligent conduct.

In so providing the Code is aligned with the stance of the Model Penal Code Reporter "[W]e do not believe a person ought to be convicted for a crime of intention where he has labored under a mistake such that, had the facts been as he supposed, he would have been free from guilt. The unreasonableness of an alleged belief may be evidenced [sic] that it was not in fact held, but if the tribunal was satisfied that the belief was held, the defendant in a prosecution for a crime founded on wrongful purpose should be entitled to be judged on the assumption that his belief was true. To convict for a belief arrived at on unreasonable grounds is, as we have urged, to convict for negligence. Where the crime otherwise requires greater culpability for a conviction, it is neither fair nor logical to convict when there is only negligence as to the circumstances that would establish a justification." M.P.C. § 3.09, Comment at 78 (Tent. Draft No. 8, 1958).

Further, we review the explanatory note to section 3.09(2) from which section 5-2-614 was modeled:

Subsection (2) provides that where the applicability of the justifications under Sections 3.04 to 3.08 turns on the actor’s belief, liability for offenses of recklessness or negligence is not barred where the belief is held recklessly or negligently.

Id. § 3.09.

Having reviewed the statute and its history, we turn to this court's interpretation of section § 5-2-614. Both parties, in their briefs and at oral argument, refer to Cobb v. State, 340 Ark. 240, 245–46, 12 S.W.3d 195, 198 (2000), and Harshaw v. State, 344 Ark. 129, 130–36,