Lesson 16: Duress

In criminal law, duress is a defense used to justify or excuse a defendant's actions if they were forced to commit a crime under the threat of imminent harm. This lesson will explore the key elements of the duress defense, its limitations, and its application in court. For a deeper dive into criminal law, consider reading Crime and Mysteries of Criminal Law.

Key Elements of Duress

For the duress defense to be valid, it typically must meet the following criteria:

  1. Immediate Threat: The defendant must have been under a threat of serious harm or death.
  2. Well-grounded Fear: The threat must have caused a reasonable fear in the defendant.
  3. No Reasonable Escape: There must have been no reasonable opportunity to escape the threat.
  4. Proportionality: The harm caused by the crime must be proportionate to the harm avoided.

Limitations of Duress Defense

There are some limitations to the duress defense:

  • It cannot be used to excuse the murder of an innocent person.
  • It is generally not available if the defendant knowingly put themselves in a situation where duress was likely.

Mermaid Diagrams

The following diagram illustrates the decision process for determining if the duress defense is applicable:

graph TD A["Is there an immediate threat of serious harm or death?"] -->|Yes| B["Does the threat cause reasonable fear?"] B -->|Yes| C["Is there no reasonable opportunity to escape?"] C -->|Yes| D["Is the harm caused by the crime proportionate to the harm avoided?"] D -->|Yes| E["Duress Defense is Applicable"] A -->|No| F["Duress Defense is Not Applicable"] B -->|No| F C -->|No| F D -->|No| F

Case Law and Examples

One of the notable cases involving the duress defense is R v Howe (1987). In this case, the House of Lords held that the duress defense is not available for murder, emphasizing the limitation of this defense.

Internal Links

For a deeper understanding of related topics, see:

Math Formula Representation

In some cases, the assessment of proportionality in the duress defense can be represented as follows:

\( \text{Harm Avoided} \geq \text{Harm Caused} \)

JavaScript Example with D3

Here is an example of using D3.js to visualize the concept of duress in criminal law:

« Previous
Next »