Is extortion a legal defense against a criminal charge?

[Lemur866]

Suppose I was threatened with physical violence unless I commited a crime, and there was no way for me to go to the cops beforehand. A guy points a loaded gun at you, marches you to the 7-11, hands you a fake gun and demands that you rob the place or he’ll kill you. Assume for the sake of argument that you are convinced he’s telling the truth, and that there is no safe way to escape. Would you face charges?

I imagine that most of the cases where the mob threatens to break your kneecaps if you don’t embezzle money for them wouldn’t fall under this defense, since you could just go to the cops and turn them in after the goons leave. But suppose you had no choice, they’re standing there with guns pointed at you.

And how severe a crime could you commit? I imagine that for most money crimes you might have a defense, since after you are free you can go to the cops and when/if the crooks are caught the money can be returned. But what about if you are forced to destroy valuable property, or assault someone, or physically injure someone, or even kill them? At what point are you legally obligated to refuse and let the crooks shoot you? Is it just a matter of prosecutorial discretion, and what they think a jury will buy? Or are there some legal guidlines?

[MEBuckner]

I’m sure it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but in the State of Georgia:

A person is not guilty of a crime, except murder, if the act upon which the supposed criminal liability is based is performed under such coercion that the person reasonably believes that performing the act is the only way to prevent his imminent death or great bodily injury. – Official Code of Georgia 16-3-26

[Otto]

In Wisconsin:

939.46 Coercion._
939.46(1) A threat by a person other than the actor’s coconspirator which causes the actor reasonably to believe that his or her act is the only means of preventing imminent death or great bodily harm to the actor or another and which causes him or her so to act is a defense to a prosecution for any crime based on that act, except that if the prosecution is for first-degree intentional homicide, the degree of the crime is reduced to 2nd-degree intentional homicide.
_
939.46(2) It is no defense to a prosecution of a married person that the alleged crime was committed by command of the spouse nor is there any presumption of coercion when a crime is committed by a married person in the presence of the spouse.

Coercion is not a defense to 2nd degree intentional homicide, because coercion mitigates 1st degree to 2nd degree.