Tyner v. State
Texas Court of Appeals, Dallas
2001 WL 683638
Tyner (defendant), while selling drugs on a rival gang's turf, was confronted by three armed rival gang members who forced him into their car at gunpoint, threatened to harm his pregnant wife whom they claimed to hold captive, and coerced him into robbing a Sonic restaurant while reinforcing the threat against his wife and unborn child; Tyner complied, was arrested by responding police after the men fled, and the trial court refused his requested jury instruction on duress, reasoning he'd placed himself in a situation where such compulsion was probable by dealing drugs on rival territory. He was convicted and appealed.
Whether, in Texas, duress is an affirmative defense whereby a defendant shows that he engaged in criminal conduct because he was compelled to do so by threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury to himself or another.