Mistake (criminal law)
Concept in criminal law / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the criminal defense. For other uses, see Mistake.
In criminal law, a mistake of fact may sometimes mean that, while a person has committed the physical element of an offence, because they were labouring under a mistake of fact, they never formed the mental element.[1] This is unlike a mistake of law, which is not usually a defense; law enforcement may or may not take for granted that individuals know what the law is.