Explaining the Asymmetry Between Mistakes of Law and Mistakes of Fact
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Ignorance and Mistake in Criminal Law
Indiana Law Journal Volume 33 Issue 1 Article 1 Fall 1957 Ignorance and Mistake in Criminal Law Jerome Hall Indiana University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj Part of the Criminal Law Commons Recommended Citation Hall, Jerome (1957) "Ignorance and Mistake in Criminal Law," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 33 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol33/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INDIANA LAW JOURNAL Volume 33 FALL 1957 Number I To perpetuate the memory of Professor Frank E. Horack, Jr., a scholarship and acquisition fund which will bear his name has been established by Indiana University. Readers of the Journal who desire to contribute to the fund are invited to send their gifts to either the Dean of the School of Law, or the I. U. Foundation, at Bloomington, Indiana. Checks may be made payable to the Foundation, and should indicate that they are to apply toward the FRANK E. HORACK, JR., MEMORIAL FUND. IGNORANCE AND MISTAKE IN CRIMINAL LAW JEROME HALLtI At the threshold of inquiry into the criminal liability of persons who commit harms under the influence of ignorance or mistake, one con- fronts an insistent perennial question-why should such persons be sub- jected to any criminal liability? Ignorantiafacti excwsat accords with the implied challenge. -
Regulatory Crimes and the Mistake of Law Defense Paul J
LEGAL MEMORANDUM No. 157 | JULY 9, 2015 Regulatory Crimes and the Mistake of Law Defense Paul J. Larkin, Jr. Abstract No one should be convicted of a crime if no reasonable person would Key Points have known, and if the defendant did not know, that the conduct charged against him was criminal. Former U.S. Attorneys General n A strict liability crime can be a Edwin Meese III and Michael Mukasey have endorsed the adoption violation of a statute or an admin- of a mistake of law defense, and criminal law scholars have long ar- istrative regulation. Using the penal law to enforce a regulatory gued that strict liability crimes lead to conviction of persons who are, code, however, creates consider- morally speaking, innocent. A recent paper by Senator Ted Cruz gives able problems, both for regulated further reason to believe that Congress may debate the continued le- parties and for the public. gitimacy of the rule that neither ignorance nor a mistake of law can n A criminal code that reaches excuse criminal liability. people who engage in conduct that no reasonable person would n the summer of 2015, the accepted wisdom is that, for good or ill, find blameworthy weakens Ithe two major American political parties are generally incapable public respect for the law and the of agreeing on any major policy change for which new legislation public’s willingness to support is necessary or useful. One exception, however, can be seen in the its enforcement. area of criminal justice. Several bills with bipartisan support would n A mistake of law defense is a rea- reform the front or back end of the correctional process either by sonable and efficient response modifying some of the federal laws imposing mandatory minimum to that concern because it sentences or by augmenting the power of the Federal Bureau of Pris- avoids making criminals out of people who engage in blame- ons to grant inmates an early release.1 Perhaps reform of the crimi- less conduct. -
Mistake of Fact Or Mistake of Criminal Law? Explaining and Defending the Distinction
Boston University School of Law Scholarly Commons at Boston University School of Law Faculty Scholarship 2009 Mistake of Fact or Mistake of Criminal Law? Explaining and Defending the Distinction Kenneth Simons Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Law Commons MISTAKE OF FACT OR MISTAKE OF CRIMINAL LAW? EXPLAINING AND DEFENDING THE DISTINCTION Boston University School of Law Working Paper No. 08-32 Kenneth W. Simons This paper can be downloaded without charge at: http://www.bu.edu/law/faculty/scholarship/workingpapers/2008.html Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1303049 Mistake of fact or mistake of criminal law? Explaining and defending the distinction by Kenneth W. Simons* Draft: November 17, 2008 Abstract: This article makes six points. First, under any plausible normative perspective, the distinction between mistake (and ignorance) of criminal law and mistake of fact must at least sometimes be drawn. Second, the fundamental distinction is between a mistake about the state’s authoritative statement of what is prohibited (“M Law”), and a mistake about whether that prohibitory norm is instantiated in a particular case (“M Fact”). Third, when an actor makes a mistake about an evaluative criterion whose content the fact-finder has discretion to elaborate, it is impossible both to allow this discretion and to faithfully realize a jurisdiction’s policy of treating M Fact and M Law differently. Fourth, the claim that every unreasonable M Fact is really a M Law elides important differences between the two kinds of mistake. Fifth, various borderline objections, such as the famous Mr. -
When Should a Mistake of Fact Excuse? Stephen P
Cornell Law Library Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository Cornell Law Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2009 When Should a Mistake of Fact Excuse? Stephen P. Garvey Cornell Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub Part of the Criminal Law Commons Recommended Citation Garvey, Stephen P., "When Should a Mistake of Fact Excuse?" (2009). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 251. http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/251 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHEN SHOULD A MISTAKE OF FACT EXCUSE? Stephen P. Garvey* I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 359 H1. WHEN SHOULD A MISTAKE OF FACT EXCUSE? ................. .. .. .. .. 360 A. From Mistake of Fact to Ignoranceof Law ............................. 364 B. From Mistake of Fact to Ignoranceof Some Law .................... 369 III. SHOULD AN "UNREASONABLE" MISTAKE OF FACT LOSE ITS EXCULPATORY FORCE? ................................... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 372 A. Mistake of Fact and Mentes Reae ............................................ 373 B. Responsibilityfor UnreasonableBeliefs .................................. 375 1. Choice ............................................................................... -
Ignorance and Mistake in the Criminal Law
Maurer School of Law: Indiana University Digital Repository @ Maurer Law Articles by Maurer Faculty Faculty Scholarship 1908 Ignorance and Mistake in the Criminal Law Edwin Roulette Keedy Indiana University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the Jurisprudence Commons Recommended Citation Keedy, Edwin Roulette, "Ignorance and Mistake in the Criminal Law" (1908). Articles by Maurer Faculty. 2052. https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/2052 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by Maurer Faculty by an authorized administrator of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HARVARD LAW REVIEW. VOL. XXII. DECEMBER, 1908. NO. 2. IGNORANCE AND MISTAKE IN THE CRIMINAL LAW. I. N the early days of English jurisprudence, maxims were regarded as inflexible and comprehensive rules of law to be strictly applied without regard to the reasons upon which they were based.' Modern courts and text-writers, however, attach much less importance to maxims;2 for the experience of centuries has proved the inapplicability of maxims in many instances and their too extensive scope in others. As pointed out in an article by Professor Jeremiah Smith,3 there is much necessary difficulty in applying a maxim on account of its brevity and the fact that it is couched in a foreign language. Moreover, there is nothing in a maxim to indicate. when it is to be applied. -
Attempt: an Abbreviated Overview of Federal Criminal Law
Attempt: An Abbreviated Overview of Federal Criminal Law Updated May 13, 2020 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R42002 Attempt: An Abbreviated Overview of Federal Criminal Law Summary Attempt is the incomplete form of some other underlying offense. Unlike state law, federal law does not feature a general attempt statute. Instead, federal law outlaws the attempt to commit a number of federal underlying offenses on an individual basis. Occasionally, federal law treats attempt-like conduct as an underlying offense; outlawing possession of drugs with intent to traffic, for instance. One way or another, it is a federal crime to attempt to commit nearly all of the most frequently occurring federal offenses. Attempt consists of two elements. One is the intent to commit the underlying offense. The other is taking some substantial step, beyond mere preparation, collaborative of the intent to commit the underlying offense. The line between mere preparation and a substantial step can be hard to identify. Some suggest that the more egregious the underlying offense, the sooner preparation will become a substantial step. Defenses are few and rarely recognized. Impossibility to complete an attempted offense offers no real obstacle to conviction. Abandonment of the effort once the substantial-step line has been crossed is no defense. Entrapment may be a valid defense when the government has induced commission of the crime and the defendant lacks predisposition to engage in the criminal conduct. The penalties for attempt and for the underlying offense are almost always the same. The United States Sentencing Guidelines may operate to mitigate the sentences imposed for attempts to commit the most severely punished underlying offenses. -
Mistake of Fact As a Defense to Common Law Crimes
Volume 41 Issue 2 Dickinson Law Review - Volume 41, 1936-1937 1-1-1937 Mistake of Fact as a Defense to Common Law Crimes Paul A. Koontz Follow this and additional works at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra Recommended Citation Paul A. Koontz, Mistake of Fact as a Defense to Common Law Crimes, 41 DICK. L. REV. 116 (1937). Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra/vol41/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Dickinson Law IDEAS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dickinson Law Review by an authorized editor of Dickinson Law IDEAS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dickinson Law Review Published October, January, April and June by Dickinson Law Students VOLUME XLI JANUARY, 1937 NUMBER 2 Subscription Price $2.00 Per Annum 75 Cents Per Number RICHARD E. KOHLER, Editor-in-Chief JOHN D. GLASE, Business Manager Assistant Editors Assistant Managers HARRY B. CRYTZER DAVID S. HORNER Ivo V. GIANNINI WILLIAM S. MORROW PAUL A. KOONTZ HENRY A. TORCHIA KENNARD LEWIS Louis S. WALTON, JR. JOHN H. MOODY HERMAS L. WEARY HAROLD S. IRWIN, Faculty Editor JOSEPH P. McKEEHAN, Faculty Manager NOTES MISTAKE OF FACT AS A DEFENSE TO COMMON LAW CRIMES The general rule of the Common Law is that a mistake of fact' is a de- fense to a crime if the mistake was: (1) as to a material fact; and (2) reasonable; and (3) such that the defendant's conduct would have been: 'For a discussion of the distinction between a mistake of fact and a mistake of law see Keedy, Ignorance and Mistake in the Criminal Law, 22 Harvard Law Review 75; also Kohler, Ignorance and Mistake of Law as a Defense in Criminal Cases, 40 Dickinson Law Review 113. -
Mistake of Criminal Law and Its Influence on the Classification of Crime Roman V
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION 2016, VOL. 11, NO. 15, 8017-8025 OPEN ACCESS Mistake of Criminal Law and its Influence on the Classification of Crime Roman V. Veresha The Academy of Advocacy, Kiev, UKRAINE. ABSTRACT The paper examines the characteristics of a mistake of the commitment of crime as an optional feature of the mental state of the crime. The analysis conducted offers an opportunity to state that in international criminal law, a mistake of law, although taken into account, does not generally affect the classification of crime. We uncovered and substantiated the need to research mistake as one of the features of the mental state of crime. This will make it possible to reveal the real causes of crime and administer the right type and measure of punishment. Moreover, the research provides a definition of mistake of criminal law by which we should understand an incorrect view of a person of the actual substance of his/her action and the specific characteristic of social relations that are protected by criminal law and are damaged as a result of a crime. Proceeding from a scientific approach to the definition of mistake of criminal law and its role in the mental state of corpus delicti, the author proposes that mistakes of law and mistakes of fact in criminal law affect the classification of crimes. KEYWORDS ARTICLE HISTORY Classification of crime, criminal liability, mistake of Received 30 April 2016 criminal law, result of crime, mental state of crime Revised 17 July 2016 Accepted 09 August 2016 Introduction The problem of mistake of criminal law is traditionally one of the key issues in criminal-legal science (Prus, 2014; Segev, 2006). -
The Mistake of Law Defense and an Unconstitutional Provision of the Model Penal Code, 93 N.C
NORTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW Volume 93 | Number 1 Article 5 12-1-2014 The iM stake of Law Defense and an Unconstitutional Provision of the Model Penal Code Gabriel J. Chin Reid Griffithon F taine Nicolas Klingerman Melody Gilkey Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Gabriel J. Chin, Reid G. Fontaine, Nicolas Klingerman & Melody Gilkey, The Mistake of Law Defense and an Unconstitutional Provision of the Model Penal Code, 93 N.C. L. Rev. 139 (2014). Available at: http://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol93/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Law Review by an authorized administrator of Carolina Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE MISTAKE OF LAW DEFENSE AND AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION OF THE MODEL PENAL CODE* GABRIEL J. CHIN,** REID GRIFFITH FONTAINE,* NICHOLAS KLINGERMAN,*** & MELODY GILKEY***** At common law, a defendant's mistaken belief about the law was no defense, even if that mistake resultedfrom reasonablereliance on governmental advice. Thus, if a prosecutor or police officer erroneously advised that certain conduct was legal, the government was free to prosecute anyone following that advice. In the mid-1950s, two separate legal doctrines altered the common-law rule. First, the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code included a mistake of law defense; a version of this defense was adopted in many states. A few years later, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution prohibited conviction in those circumstances; the Court cited neither the Model Penal Code nor related criminal jurisprudence, instead relying solely on due process principles. -
Excusing Mistakes Of
Philosophers’ volume 9, no. 2 ven a cursory look at the criminal law will lead one to real- april 2009 ize that despite the old adage, a person who has a mistaken Imprint E belief about the law can, in our system at least, be excused from criminal liability on those grounds. There are whole categories of legal mistake that can, at least under certain conditions, excuse a defendant from criminal liability. To give just one example, consider the British case of Regina v. Smith (1974 (2 Q. B. 354)). With his landlord’s permis- Excusing Mistakes sion, the defendant installed some speaker wire behind a wall in an apartment he was renting. When it came time to move out, he discon- nected the wire. He was charged with the crime of damaging property belonging to another, a crime that requires the defendant to intend of Law such damage, or to be reckless with respect to it. He falsely believed that the speaker wire belonged to him, when in fact the law granted it, in such cases, to the landlord. Things attached to a wall belonged to the tenant; things installed behind them, to the landlord. But Smith was mistaken about the legal rule. After an appeal, the defendant was acquitted; his mistaken belief about the law was enough to excuse him. So, when understood as a descriptive claim, the slogan that ignorance of the law is no excuse is simply false. Further, when the slogan is understood normatively — as a claim to the effect that no one who is ignorant of the law should, on those grounds, be excused — it is false as well. -
Mistake of Law and Mens Rea
MISTAKE OF LAW AND MENS REA ilA'IsNoN HALm* AND SriLG J. SELiGAO t A WELL SETTLED common law rule holds that a mistake of law, as a result of which the defendant does not know that his con- duct is illegal, does not operate as a defense in most criminal cases. Why this should be true, when there is also the generally accepted common law principle that some sort of culpability, whether based on subjective moral guilt or objective negligence, should ordinarily be neces- sary for criminal liability, is a question which has been felt to require explanation by many writers., This article will trace the history of the general rule, consider the reasons justifying its retention in the criminal law, and attempt to evaluate the many exceptions to it which have been urged by counsel in modern times, often with success. We lay aside at the outset, as not germane to our present inquiry, crimes in which a specific criminal intent to act in a manner known to be illegal (or recklessness in the same respect) is required. In these crimes, the court or legislature, by thus defining the crime, has said that any con- dition negativing the existence of the required state of mind should result in an acquittal. Thus a mistake of law which has this effect may give a defense.2 But the question whether such a specific intent is required for any given crime has little in common with the problem of giving a general defense of mistake of law in crimes not coming within this category. -
Ignorance and Mistake of Criminal Law, Noncriminal Law, and Fact
Ignorance and Mistake of Criminal Law, Noncriminal Law, and Fact Kenneth W. Simons* After clarifying the distinction between mistakes of fact and mistakes of law, this article explores in detail an important distinction within the category of mistake of law, between mistake about the criminal law itself and mistake about noncriminal law norms that the criminal law makes relevant-for example, about the civil law of property (in a theft prosecution) or of divorce (in a bigamy prosecution). The Model Penal Code seems to endorse the view that mistakes about noncriminal law norms should presumptively be treated as exculpatory in the same way as analogous mistakes about facts. Case law on the matter is more ambiguous. As a matter of policy, when should mistakes of noncriminal law exculpate? Should they always be treated in the same manner as an analogous mistake offact? Sometimes? Answering these questions is a complex matter; the articleidentifies some relevantfactors. Conversely, when should a mistake of noncriminal law inculpate, creating attempt liability? In the parallel scenario of factually impossible attempts, liability is frequently imposed. But I suggest caution before recognizing attempt liability here. Classifying a mistake as one of criminal or noncriminal law is especially difficult in three scenarios: (1) when a criminal law incorporatesa civil schedule of prohibited items, (2) when a law simply criminalizes acts that violate a civil regulatoryprohibition, and (3) when terms within a criminal law draw their meaning from both the criminal law and the civil law. A final section questions the view that we should always give symmetrical treatment to (1) exculpatory mistake and ignorance (precluding liability for the completed crime) and (2) , inculpatory mistake and ignorance (producingliability for the attempt).