McMillan v. State

The petitioner, Nathaniel Paul McMillan, was tried by a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County for the murder of Herman Haiss, a former neighbor. His defense at trial was that his participation — knocking on the victim’s door, which allowed his two acquaintances to gain entrance — in the crimes with which he was charged, first-degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder and second-degree murder,1 was coerced. Accordingly, he requested that the jury be *339instructed on the defense of “duress.” The trial court refused to give to the jury the requested duress instruction.…