United States v. Clifford Bailey, United States of America v. Ronald Clifton Cooley, United States of America v. Ralph Walker

Traditionally, claims of compulsion have been governed by strict standards; defendants have been required to raise such issues within the framework of the affirmative defenses of duress and necessity, and these defenses have been precisely defined, carefully hedged, and subject to strict proof. In a radical departure from this approach, the majority holds that even if evidence is insufficient as a matter of law to make out a duress or necessity defense, it must nevertheless be presented to the jury as bearing, in some nebulous and undefined way, on a defendant’s “voluntariness” and “intent”.…