Criminal Offenses Against Law Enforcement Officers and Other Personnel
Unlawful arrest no longer a defense to resisting or battering officers; manslaughter gets life
Florida Statutes affected
| s. 776.051 | Use or threatened use of force in resisting arrest or making an arrest or in the execution of a legal duty; prohibition. |
| s. 782.065 | Murder; law enforcement officer, correctional officer, correctional probation officer. |
| s. 784.07 | Assault or battery of law enforcement officers and other specified personnel; reclassification of offenses; minimum sentences. |
| s. 843.01 | Resisting, obstructing, or opposing by offering or doing violence to legally authorized person, police canine, or police horse. |
| s. 921.0022 | Criminal Punishment Code; offense severity ranking chart. |
Side-by-side: current law vs. the bill
Bill section 1
Not codified in the Florida Statutes.
This act may be cited as the “Officer Jason Raynor Act.”
s. 776.051, F.S.
776.051 Use or threatened use of force in resisting arrest or making an arrest or in the execution of a legal duty; prohibition.—
(1) A person is not justified in the use or threatened use of force to resist an arrest by a law enforcement officer, or to resist a law enforcement officer who is engaged in the execution of a legal duty, if the law enforcement officer was acting in good faith and he or she is known, or reasonably appears, to be a law enforcement officer.
(2) A law enforcement officer, or any person whom the officer has summoned or directed to assist him or her, is not justified in the use of force if the arrest or execution of a legal duty is unlawful and known by him or her to be unlawful.
776.051 Use or threatened use of force in resisting arrest or detention ; prohibition.—
A person is not justified in the use or threatened use of force to resist any arrest or detention by a law enforcement officer, or to resist a law enforcement officer who is engaged in the performance of his or her official duties as described in s. 943.10(1) , if the law enforcement officer was acting in good faith and he or she is known, or reasonably appears, to be a law enforcement officer. As used in this section, the term “acting in good faith” means to make sincere and reasonable efforts to comply with legal requirements, even if the arrest, detention, or other act is later found to have been unlawful
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