Summary
The Montana Supreme Court affirmed Timothy Ray McNeff's conviction for felony driving under the influence. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to give a jury instruction on the compulsion defense because the evidence did not establish a reasonable belief that McNeff faced imminent death or serious bodily harm.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the district court abused its discretion by refusing to instruct the jury on the statutory defense of compulsion.
Holdings
- The district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing the compulsion instruction because the evidence did not establish that McNeff reasonably believed he would suffer death or serious bodily harm if he failed to drink to intoxication and drive with his passengers.
Key quotations
“A person is not guilty of an offense, other than an offense punishable with death, by reason of conduct which he performs under the compulsion of threat or menace of the imminent infliction of death or serious bodily harm if he reasonably believes that death or serious bodily harm will be inflicted upon him if he does not perform such conduct.” (¶ 9)
“For these reasons, we conclude the District Court did not abuse its discretion in ruling that the evidence presented did not establish a reasonable belief by McNeff that he would suffer death or serious bodily harm if he failed to drink to intoxication and drive around with his passengers for 7 hours.” (¶ 10)
Factual background
A Bureau of Indian Affairs officer stopped McNeff for running a stop sign and observed that McNeff and his passengers appeared intoxicated. McNeff failed field sobriety tests, and subsequent breath and blood tests showed alcohol concentrations of .21 and .22. At trial, McNeff claimed that his passengers had carjacked him, threatened him, forced him to drink, and compelled him to drive for approximately seven hours, but responding officers testified that he never reported those circumstances during the several hours of arrest processing.
Procedural history
After a jury convicted McNeff of felony driving or being in actual control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, the Ninth Judicial District Court sentenced him to a total of 49 months with the Montana Department of Corrections. The district court denied McNeff's requested compulsion instruction, concluding that he had not satisfied the statutory elements of the defense. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed.