- Home
- Books and Journals
- Carolina Academic Press
- Understanding Criminal Law (CAP) 2018
- Title
- Chapter 17 Justifications and Excuses
§ 17.04 JUSTIFICATION DEFENSES AND MISTAKE-OF-FACT CLAIMS
Jurisdiction | United States |
§ 17.04. Justification Defenses and Mistake-of-Fact Claims31
[A] General Rule
Consider the following hypothetical: D intentionally kills V. At trial, D claims that she killed V because she believed that V was about to kill her. In fact, V was not about to kill D. This very common scenario involves the convergence of two "defense" concepts: a traditional justification defense (here, self-defense) and a mistake-of-fact claim (D's erroneous belief that V posed an imminent unlawful deadly threat).
Two questions arise when a defendant asserts a justification defense, and yet also claims a mistake of fact: (1) Is a defendant entitled to be acquitted if she was mistaken regarding the facts that would justify her conduct?; and (2) If she is entitled to be acquitted, should the law describe her conduct as justified or excused? For current purposes, these questions will be answered in relation to self-defense (considered fully in Chapter 18), but the principles here have application to the other justification defenses, as well.
The law is clear-cut in situations of the sort described here. A defendant is entitled to be acquitted on the basis of self-defense if her mistake of fact regarding the threat was reasonable. However, she will be convicted of some form of criminal homicide if her mistake was unreasonable.32 More specifically, the rule is that a defendant is justified— and not merely excused—in using deadly force if, at the time of the homicide, she genuinely and reasonably believed that she was in imminent danger of death or grievous bodily injury, and that deadly force was necessary to repel the threat, although it turned out later that these appearances were false.
[B] Criticisms of the General Rule
There is little disagreement with the principle that a defendant who acts on the basis of reasonable appearances should be acquitted, but there is debate about the propriety of treating such a mistaken actor's conduct as justifiable, rather than excusable. In the self-defense hypothetical at the beginning of this section, how can it be that D is justified in taking V's life if V was, in fact, an innocent person?
Critics of the general rule that a person is justified in acting on the basis of reasonable, albeit inaccurate, appearances, argue that it confuses the difference between justifications, which go to the propriety of the defendant's act, and excuses, which relate to the blameworthiness of the actor. These critics maintain that a reasonable-but-mistaken a...
To continue reading
Request your trial- Title
- Chapter 17 Justifications and Excuses
- § 17.01 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
- § 17.02 UNDERLYING THEORIES OF "JUSTIFICATION"
- § 17.03 UNDERLYING THEORIES OF "EXCUSE"
- § 17.04 JUSTIFICATION DEFENSES AND MISTAKE-OF-FACT CLAIMS
- § 17.05 JUSTIFICATION VERSUS EXCUSE: WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Subscribers can access the reported version of this case.
You can sign up for a trial and make the most of our service including these benefits.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.
Subscribers are able to see a list of all the cited cases and legislation of a document.
You can sign up for a trial and make the most of our service including these benefits.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.
Subscribers are able to see a list of all the documents that have cited the case.
You can sign up for a trial and make the most of our service including these benefits.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.
Subscribers are able to see the revised versions of legislation with amendments.
You can sign up for a trial and make the most of our service including these benefits.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.
Subscribers are able to see any amendments made to the case.
You can sign up for a trial and make the most of our service including these benefits.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.
Subscribers are able to see a visualisation of a case and its relationships to other cases. An alternative to lists of cases, the Precedent Map makes it easier to establish which ones may be of most relevance to your research and prioritise further reading. You also get a useful overview of how the case was received.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.
Subscribers are able to see the list of results connected to your document through the topics and citations Vincent found.
You can sign up for a trial and make the most of our service including these benefits.
Why Sign-up to vLex?
-
Over 100 Countries
Search over 120 million documents from over 100 countries including primary and secondary collections of legislation, case law, regulations, practical law, news, forms and contracts, books, journals, and more.
-
Thousands of Data Sources
Updated daily, vLex brings together legal information from over 750 publishing partners, providing access to over 2,500 legal and news sources from the world’s leading publishers.
-
Find What You Need, Quickly
Advanced A.I. technology developed exclusively by vLex editorially enriches legal information to make it accessible, with instant translation into 14 languages for enhanced discoverability and comparative research.
-
Over 2 million registered users
Founded over 20 years ago, vLex provides a first-class and comprehensive service for lawyers, law firms, government departments, and law schools around the world.