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Ind. Code § 35-41-3-8

Duress

Applied in 22 court decisions — leading case State v. Hunter (1987)

Most recently applied in Riley M. Randall v. State of Indiana (December 2018)

As added by Acts 1976, P.L.148, SEC.1

How often courts cite this section

1980199020002010201830
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Sec. 8. (a) It is a defense that the person who engaged in the prohibited conduct was compelled to do so by threat of imminent serious bodily injury to himself or another person. With respect to offenses other than felonies, it is a defense that the person who engaged in the prohibited conduct was compelled to do so by force or threat of force. Compulsion under this section exists only if the force, threat, or circumstances are such as would render a person of reasonable firmness incapable of resisting the pressure.

(b) This section does not apply to a person who:

(1) recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally placed himself in a situation in which it was foreseeable that he would be subjected to duress; or

(2) committed an offense against the person as defined in IC 35-42.

Official source: Indiana General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Indiana statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.