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Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-304

Mitigating circumstances

Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Penry v. Lynaugh (1989)

Most recently applied in 962 F. Supp. 804 - United States v. Beckford (April 1997)

En. 95-2206.9 by Sec. 4, Ch. 338, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 95-2206.9; amd

How often courts cite this section

19821990199720
citing decisions per year

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.

(1) Mitigating circumstances are any of the following:

(a) The defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity.

(b) The offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance.

(c) The defendant acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person.

(d) The capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of the defendant's conduct or to conform the defendant's conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired.

(e) The victim was a participant in the defendant's conduct or consented to the act.

(f) The defendant was an accomplice in an offense committed by another person, and the defendant's participation was relatively minor.

(g) The defendant, at the time of the commission of the crime, was less than 18 years of age.

(2) The court may consider any other fact that exists in mitigation of the penalty.

Official source: Montana Code Annotated (Montana Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Montana statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.