Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 2009
Keywords
Excuses to criminal liability, Mistake of fact, Mistake of law, Criminal defenses, Staples v. United States, People v. Marrero, Cheek v. United States, Regina v. Prince, Bryan v. United States, People v. Navarro
Disciplines
Criminal Law
Abstract
This symposium contribution advances two claims. First, a mistake (or ignorance) of fact should matter in the criminal law only insofar as it causes an actor to be ignorant of the law. Mistakes of fact should have exculpatory force if and only if they cause ignorance of the law, which ignorance ought to be an excuse to criminal liability. Second, an actor who should otherwise be excused because he is ignorant of the law, which ignorance is in turn the result of some mistake of fact, should not lose that excuse just because the underlying mistake of fact can in a plausible and legitimate sense be characterized as "unreasonable."
Recommended Citation
Garvey, Stephen P., "When Should a Mistake of Fact Excuse?" (2009). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. 251.
https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/251
Publication Citation
Published in: Texas Tech Law Review, vol. 42, no. 2 (Winter 2009).