VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Crim. No. 35.220
Lawful Discharge of Duty in Making Arrest—Definition
The lawful discharge of duty in making an arrest requires (1) that the officer making the arrest
has the authority to do so and (2) that the conduct of the officer in making the arrest is lawful.
An officer has the authority to make an arrest [when he has in his possession a warrant for the
arrest of the person he is seeking to arrest; when he has reasonable grounds or probable cause to believe
that the person he is seeking to arrest has committed, or been charged with, a felony; when he observes a
crime being committed in his presence by the person he is seeking to arrest; when there is probable
cause based upon a reasonable complaint of a person who has observed a misdemeanor involving
shoplifting, even though the offense was not committed in the officer’s presence; when there is probable
cause based upon a reasonable complaint of a person who has observed a misdemeanor involving
carrying a weapon on school property, property open to the public which is being used for a school
sponsored function, or a school bus, even though the offense was not committed in the officer’s
presence].
An officer having the authority to make an arrest must be in uniform or must display his badge
to the person he is seeking to arrest. The officer may use whatever force is reasonably necessary
to arrest a person. He is not required to inform the person of the charges against him until that
person has been arrested.
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Criminal, Release 26, October 2025. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- crim-2025-10-01
- Content hash
8ce2f9a00195a07735c77e42b17e1092e3335fdc52de2da8fdb1b528089e81fa
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.