lawful orders

A plea or legal defense strategy in which the defendant claims that his or her actions were solely the result of carrying out the orders of superiors and that, as such, he or she should not be found guilty of such actions. Often known as the "Nuremberg defense," which is a reference to the use of such a defense by political and military leaders of defeated Nazi Germany in the Nuremberg Trials of 1945–46. Against the charge of unlawful murder during wartime, the staff sergeant's defense attorney put forward a lawful orders defense, claiming that the killings were carried out under direct orders by superior officers.