The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 14: Do or Die
Duress pg 24: Your Own Fault
And so Trog, fearing for his life, committed kidnapping, rape, and a few other crimes.
Trog zipping up his pants while a woman lies traumatized on the bed
TROG
But I can claim Duress, right?
Explainey Biker reappears
EXPLAINEY BIKER
Wrong!
TROG
But every element of Duress was there!
EXPLAINEY BIKER
Except you’re the one who put yourself in the situation, by joining the Horde!
Average Joe making a pissed-off comment
AVERAGE JOE
Once again, there is no chutzpah defense.
So it looks like Trog’s going to jail, too.
Seems like the “can’t put yourself in the situation” is awfully vague. If Trog doesn’t know the Horde is a criminal group when he joins, how could he know what would be expected of him? Similarly, if my girlfriend threatens to shoot me if I don’t commit a crime, I “put myself in the situation” by dating her. The two bank robbers “put themselves in the situation” by choosing to go to where the Horde happened to be looking for somebody to kidnap.
I believe that it comes down to your knowledge
The two guys who went to the banks had no idea that would happen, and there was no reasonable way for them to know
The girlfriend? Your friends could have warned you, but it sounds outlandish enough that you could ignore it. So it’s reasonable. Depends on how much evidence you were given (E.g. “She’s fucking nuts, dude! She almost stabbed me!” with no evidence is a case of, “…Yeah, uh huh”. Vs. “She fucking stabbed me and I have the scars!”, which could be, “…Ok” and comes down to, “Well, is this person known for getting into such situations?” Vs. “Dude, I’ve got the fucking police reports, she was in jail, and she even freaking told me she’d use you as a patzy if you date her, and I have an audio recording and you are honestly a dumbass if you ignore all this evidence”)
Trog? Considering all these crimes, the Gold Guys are likely well known, and this then comes down to, “Ignorance is no excuse”
Well, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Ignorance of facts is an excuse. Presumably, joining the Horde means expressing a willingness to commit some kind of crime (thus intent), given the aforementioned reputation (so it’s like getting drunk. Your actions led you to a situation where you knew in advance there was some risk of ultimately engaging in criminal activity), but if he’s from out of town and was convinced by his buddies as part of an elaborate prank that the Horde were just a bunch of oddly dressed debate-and-mechanics enthusiasts who are interested in charity drives and bakesales, and he can prove that claim in court, I’d assume he’d be in a similar position to the kidnap victims.
I would imagine that he would have to convince the jury that he had no idea the group had a criminal side, and that a “reasonable person” (i.e. them) wouldn’t have known either.
Going back to the ol’ Mens Rea-o-meter, would one have to put oneself in the situation intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly?
Remember, you’re the one who put yourself in the situation of living on Earth by being born here and choosing not to kill yourself.
Don’t be an idiot.