CJS 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Mens Rea
8 Dec 2020
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Document Summary
Criminal law is a one trick pony: we are again considering a comment made by a judge that an accused"s honest mistaken belief must be based on reasonable grounds. If the accused believes in a set of circumstances that would make his actions not criminal, then he must be acquitted as lacking intention. That belief must be an honestly held belief, it need not be reasonable. The house of lords does get this one right. Guy drinking with army guys, told guys to come back to his place, and they could all sleep with his wife. She"s in another room with 7 year old; they wake her up and pin her down and proceed to all. Their defense: this is exactly what he told us would happen, he said she as going to act like have sex with her she didn"t want it. Primary defence was consent (crown has to prove lack of this to establish rape)
