§ 5.00 Penal law not strictly construed.\n The general rule that a penal statute is to be strictly construed does\nnot apply to this chapter, but the provisions herein must be construed\naccording to the fair import of their terms to promote justice and\neffect the objects of the law.\n
N.Y. Penal Law § 5.00
Penal law not strictly construed
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case People v. Roberts (2018)
Most recently applied in People v. Roberts (May 2018)
2014-09-22
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: NYS Open Legislation (New York State Senate). Reproduced from public-domain New York statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.