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Williams v. Maryland9/1/1994
" denotes more culpability than negligence:
there should be no exculpation if the actor recklessly placed himself in the situation in which it was probable that he would be subjected to duress. Though this provision may have the effect of sanctioning conviction of a crime of purpose when the actor's culpability was limited to recklessness, we think the substitution is permissible in view of the exceptional nature of the offense. The provision will have its main room for operation in the case of persons who connect themselves with criminal activities, in which case too fine a line need not be drawn. When there is no more than negligence, however, on the actor's part in placing himself in a situation where duress was probable. . . the defense is excluded only on a charge which negligence suffices to establish culpability. . . the difference between {PA}
Page 417} inadvertence and conscious risk creation involved in recklessness appears to justify discriminating in this way.
Id. at 1205 (emphasis in the original) (quoting Model Penal Code, Comments, Tentative Draft 10, at 8). The court held that the defendant, however, was not prejudiced by the trial court's failure to define the term "recklessly," and affirmed his conviction.
The Court of Appeals of Alaska in Walker v. State, 674 P.2d 825 (Alaska Ct. App. 1983), held that the trial court's failure to define the term "recklessly" was not plain error. Id. at 830. Walker, the defendant, and his cohorts knocked on the door of a residence they planned to burglarize to make sure no one was home. Id. at 827. When the owner's son opened the door, the three men claimed they had car trouble and were in need of a telephone. Id. at 827. The men entered the dwelling, robbed it and later kidnapped and killed the owner and her son. Id. at 827. At trial, Walker claimed that he agreed to participate in the burglary, but from the moment his companions drew a gun, he had to go along with the other greater crimes out of fear for his well-being. Walker was tried for two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, one count of robbery, one count of burglary, and two counts of theft. Walker was convicted on all counts except the murder counts. Id. at 827. On appeal, the court concluded that under Alaska Stat. ยง 11.81.440(b), duress is an affirmative defense and therefore the burden was on Walker to establish this defense. As he never objected to the instructions, the Court held that the trial court's failure to define the term "recklessly" did not constitute plain error. Id. at 827-29.
In Meador v. State, 10 Ark. App. 325, 664 S.W.2d 878 (Ark. Ct. App. 1984), Meador was charged with attempted robbery. Testimony at trial revealed that Meador tried to rob a nursing home after some men to whom he owed money picked him up at his apartment and said they were going to use him to rob an establishment to collect their money. Id. at 880. Meador therefore objected to the trial court's instructions that duress is not a defense if he "recklessly placed himself in a situation in which it was reasonably forseeable that he would be subjected to the force or threatened force." Id. at 881. The Arkansas Court of Appeals found no error in the trial court's jury instruction, concluding that from
the evidence adduced at trial, particularly the testimony of the appellant concerning why he owed the debt to the men who allegedly forced him to rob the nursing home, it could be inferred that the appellant's drug dependence placed him in the position to be forced by these men to do something he might otherwise not do. Thus the trial court's instructions that the appellant could not claim the defense if he recklessly put himself
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