People of Michigan v. Theresa Marie Gafken

Summary

The Michigan Supreme Court held that a defendant charged with second-degree murder under a depraved-heart theory may assert the common-law affirmative defense of duress. Because the trial court excluded the duress evidence and prevented the defense, and the resulting preserved constitutional error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the Court reversed, vacated the conviction, and remanded. The separate opinions, which are not treated as holdings here, disputed both the availability of duress and whether the issue had been waived.