Effect of ignorance or mistake upon criminal liability
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case State v. Gallegos (1994)
Most recently applied in 375 F. Supp. 2d 1152 - United States v. Rosales-Valdez (December 2004)
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
A. Ignorance or a mistaken belief as to a matter of fact does not relieve a person of criminal liability unless:
1. It negates the culpable mental state required for commission of the offense; or
2. It supports a defense of justification as defined in chapter 4 of this title.
B. Ignorance or mistake as to a matter of law does not relieve a person of criminal responsibility.
Official source: Arizona State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Arizona statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.