State v. Toscano
New Jersey Supreme Court
378 A.2d 755 (1977)
Dr. Joseph Toscano (defendant) completed fraudulent medical reports for an insurance-fraud scheme after Leonardo, the scheme's architect — to whom Toscano owed gambling debts through Leonardo's brother — repeatedly made loud, vicious phone threats against Toscano and his wife if he did not cooperate. After completing the reports, Toscano and his wife moved and changed their phone number to escape Leonardo. At trial, after Toscano testified about the threats, the judge excluded further duress evidence and refused to instruct the jury on duress; Toscano was convicted and appealed.
Whether duress is a defense to a crime other than murder when the defendant acted because he was coerced by the use or threat of unlawful force against himself or another, of a kind that a person of reasonable firmness in his situation would have been unable to resist.