Wednesday

 

I read the Penal Code

According to the Penal Law of New York 15.20(c) if I were to show some person (X) a judicial opinion stating that a certain set of actions is not a crime in the State of New York, and because I'm so persuasive my showing X this judicial opinion convinces them it's not a crime and X goes ahead and takes those actions, X would have a complete defense, not withstanding that the judicial opinion was (unbeknownst to X, but known to me) later reversed on appeal or overruled. 15.20(a) says something similar with relation to statutes, though I have trouble imagining an out-of-date statute which specifically states that something is not a crime. I recognize that I wouldn’t necessarily have a defense in this hypothetical, but I think it's fairly clear that X does.

This post will be updated with whatever frequency I find other provisions of the penal code odd.

# posted by washerdreyer @ 5/04/2005 04:41:00 PM
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