The Driver at Gunpoint

On 18 March 1973 two men robbed a soft-drink outlet in Ottawa. During the robbery one of them fired a rifle and killed an innocent bystander. Both pleaded guilty to murder. The Accused was charged with the same murder, although he was not at the store and never saw the shooting. The Crown's theory was that he had formed a common intention with the two robbers to commit the robbery and so was a party to the killing that came out of it. His account, in a statement to police that the Crown itself put in evidence, was this. One of the robbers phoned him for a ride because his own car was broken. In the car he asked the Accused where he used to work, and the Accused said the soft-drink outlet. The man told him to drive there because he intended to rob it. The Accused refused. The man pulled a gun and threatened to kill him. They picked up the second man, and a rifle, and the Accused drove them to the store. He was told he would be dealt with if he did not wait. Afraid, he drove around the block instead. After the robbery and the shooting, the two robbers twice tried to get into his car and failed; three Crown witnesses confirmed that. He also told the arresting officer and, the next day, his girlfriend that he had been forced. The statutory defence of compulsion in s. 17 of the Criminal Code expressly excludes murder and robbery.