Duress and Coercion Defense in Federal Criminal Cases

If you've been charged with a federal crime and committed it due to threats, intimidation, or force from someone else, you can argue duress or coercion as a valid defense.

A duress defense may be used if you were compelled to commit a crime you would not have otherwise committed.

If you and your attorney can demonstrate that your situation legally qualifies as acting under duress or coercion, you might have the charges dropped or at least see your sentence reduced.

You need to prove that someone threatened to harm you if you did not commit a crime, and that you genuinely believed your life was in immediate danger if you refused.

Your belief must also be reasonable. Additionally, a threat of future harm does not qualify for this defense; the danger to your life must be imminent.

Reasonable Fear of Immediate Injury

In simple terms, the legal defense of duress or coercion relies on proving that you committed the crime solely due to a reasonable fear of imminent serious injury or death if you didn't act.

Additionally, there must have been no reasonable way to avoid the harm. Using this defense, you admit to committing the offense but argue you shouldn't be held guilty because of the circumstances.

Before instructing a jury about coercion, a federal court must first establish evidence of coercion or duress.

If a sufficient defense is provided, the burden then shifts to the prosecution to prove that coercion did not happen. Coercion is commonly invoked in drug-related crimes but less so in crimes like murder.

Key Takeaways

Duress or coercion cannot serve as a defense for all crimes. For instance, it usually does not apply to murder charges.
If you are accused of killing your attacker out of fear, you would instead invoke self-defense, not duress.
Under the law, the defense of duress or coercion is limited to threats of death or serious bodily harm.
If you committed a crime because someone threatened to disclose harmful information about you, the court probably would not consider duress a valid defense.
Duress or coercion usually isn't considered a valid defense if you knowingly place yourself in a dangerous situation.
If you willingly join a criminal organization and then commit a crime under their orders, the duress or coercion defense would probably not apply.

Definition of Duress and Coercion

Duress and coercion are essentially two aspects of the same concept: both entail a person being compelled to commit a crime through threats or intimidation, often involving threats of death or serious harm to themselves or a loved one.

Duress occurs when someone is threatened, meaning they commit a crime solely out of fear for their life, safety, or well-being if they do not follow the demands of another person.
Coercion involves the individual issuing threats. It describes a situation where someone forces or intimidates you into committing a crime.

Your defense, taken as a whole, is that someone forced you into committing the crime, and therefore, you acted under duress.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual

Under 5K2.12, the coercion and duress policy statement states the following:

"If the defendant committed the offense because of serious coercion, blackmail, or duress, under the circumstances not amounting to a complete defense, the court may decrease the sentence below the applicable guideline range. The extent of the decrease ordinarily should depend on the reasonableness of the defendant's actions and on the extent to which the conduct would have been less harmful under the circumstances as the defendant believed it to be.

Ordinarily, coercion will warrant departure only when it involves a threat of physical injury, substantial property damage, or similar injury resulting from a third party's unlawful action or a natural emergency.

The Commission considered the relevance of economic hardship and determined that personal financial difficulties and economic pressures upon a trade or business do not warrant a decrease in sentence."

The Impact of Duress and Coercion on Crime Commission

People are often compelled to commit crimes under external pressures or threats, especially when facing the danger of injury or death.

For instance, a person might be threatened with violence if they refuse to participate in a bank robbery. Such a threat of harm would likely constitute duress, implying that the crime was committed because of it.

Additionally, individuals can be forced into criminal acts through involvement with dangerous organizations or by being falsely imprisoned.

Establishing Duress and Coercion as a Defense

To use duress or coercion as a defense, your federal defense attorney needs to prove three specific criteria:

You were under an immediate threat of serious bodily harm: You faced a clear, immediate threat that was severe enough to involve your life or cause serious harm. Threats to loved ones also qualify as duress.
You had a reasonable fear that the threat would be carried out: This isn't about the threat itself but your belief in it. You must have genuinely feared the threat would happen without your crime. Any reasonable person in your place would also have believed and feared it, given the threatener's credibility, history, and ability to carry it out.
You had no reasonable opportunity to escape the situation: You need to show that escaping was not realistically possible for you. This indicates you felt trapped, with committing the crime appearing to be your only option. Several factors can influence this evaluation, including where the incident occurred, whether others were present, how immediate the threat was, and any efforts you made to flee.

You can contact our law firm for a case review by phone or via the contact form. Eisner Gorin LLP has offices in Los Angeles, California.

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