- Exclusions:
- Under common law, intentional murder excluded from duress (but maybe not felony murder).
- Voluntary exposure to situation also not duress.
- Duress must be imminent.
NECESSITY
The Queen v. Dudley & Stephens
- Killed and ate the cabin boy(!) to stay alive.
- Mostly cannot excuse killing by necessity.
- But MPC says can be, depending on weighing the circumstances.
- 5 lives might be better to save than 1.
- But no real cases that sustain that, just some dicta.
- Broke into missile silos
- Not an imminent threat, plus some political choice likely being made.
- But might well apply if you new something was going wrong, and stopped it in time.
- But attacking military/political offices as a protest, usually the courts do not find necessity.