2013 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 53a - Penal Code
Chapter 951 - Penal Code: Statutory Construction; Principles of Criminal Liability
Section 53a-14 - Duress as defense.
In any prosecution for an offense, it shall be a defense that the defendant engaged in the proscribed conduct because he was coerced by the use or threatened imminent use of physical force upon him or a third person, which force or threatened force a person of reasonable firmness in his situation would have been unable to resist. The defense of duress as defined in this section shall not be available to a person who intentionally or recklessly places himself in a situation in which it is probable that he will be subjected to duress.
(1969, P.A. 828, S. 14.)
Cited. 15 CA 34. Cited. 26 CA 367. Cited. 46 CA 486. Court did not err in charging jury re statutory exception to defense of duress by failing to define the term “situation”; because “situation” is not defined in section, it is taken that the jury, as a matter of common knowledge, comprehends the term and, therefore, the trial court was not obligated to define it. 125 CA 125.
Cited. 34 CS 612.
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