There are two categories of mistakes in criminal law: mistakes of fact, and mistakes of law.
As you may have heard, "ignorance of the law is never an excuse." While this isn't always true for a narrow class of laws that require a very specific intent, the principle is fairly simple: one cannot escape prosecution by being willfully ignorant.
A mistake of fact is more complicated because it often eliminates the necessary mens rea (e.g. mental state, guilty mind, criminal motive, intent) for conviction. For example, assume a person knows that it is illegal to have sexual intercourse with a minor. He meets a young woman at a party. At a social function, he sees her drink alcohol. He knows that she drives. While he doesn't ask to see her driver's license, he is fairly confident that she is over 18. He has no intent to have a sexual relationship with a minor.
What if she's 16?
Worse, what if she's 16 and she falsely represents herself to be 18?
Can he use her misrepresentation or his mistake as a legal defense in a prosecution for sexual assault?
Not anymore.
The mistake of fact defense was eliminated in Texas and replaced with the the affirmative defense of age (within 3 years). As long as the person in the hypothetical isn't older than 19, he shouldn't be prosecuted. Otherwise, he is liable for prosecution.
One reason Mistake of Fact is inapplicable in sexual assault cases involving minors is that it creates a potential for abuse. Similar to the Mistake of Law, a person has every incentive to be willfully ignorant about another's age. Seeking to curb predatory behavior, the Legislature shifted the burden so that a person must take affirmative steps to validate a person's age or risk prosecution if the other party is a minor. |
