Is a person who committed a crime "under an ignorance or mistake of fact which disproves any criminal intent" incapable of committing the crime?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Alvarado, B254210 (Cal. App. 2015):

A person who committed a crime "under an ignorance or mistake of fact, which disproves any criminal intent" is incapable of committing a crime. (Pen. Code, 26.) If the defendant had an honest and reasonable belief in the existence of circumstances, which, if true, would make the act an innocent act, the mistake of fact defense applies. (People v. Lucero (1988) 203 Cal.App.3d 1011, 1016-1017.) A mistake of fact occurs when a person understands the facts to be other than what they are. For a general intent

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crime, the mistake of fact must be actual and reasonable; for a specific intent crime it must be actual.1 (People v. Lawson (2013) 215 Cal.App.4th 108, 115.)

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