We also conclude that duress cannot reduce murder to manslaughter. We conclude that, as in Blackstone's England, so today in California: fear for one's own life does not justify killing an innocent person. We granted review to decide whether these words apply in California. Over two centuries ago, William Blackstone, the great commentator on the common law, said that duress is no excuse for killing an innocent person: "And, therefore, though a man be violently assaulted, and hath no other possible means of escaping death, but by killing an innocent person, this fear and force shall not acquit him of murder for he ought rather to die himself than escape by the murder of an innocent." (2 Jones's Blackstone (1916) p.
Engler and Moona Nandi, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. Bass, Assistant Attorney General, Catherine A. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Ronald A. Kenwood, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.īill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Concurring and dissenting opinion by Kennard, J. J., Baxter, Werdegar, Brown, and Moreno, JJ., concurring. ROBERT NEAL ANDERSON, Defendant and Appellant.
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