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EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 86 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES . This expression is used in See also:

law with reference to crimes, to describe cases in which, though an offence has been committed without legal See also:justification or excuse, its gravity, from the point of view of See also:punishment or moral opprobrium, is mitigated or reduced by See also:reason of the facts leading up to or attending the See also:commission of the offence. Ac-cording to See also:English See also:procedure, the See also:jury has no See also:power to determine the punishment to be awarded for an offence. The See also:sentence, with certain exceptions in See also:capital cases, is within the See also:sole discretion of the See also:judge, subject to the statutory prescriptions as to the See also:kind and maximum of punishment. It is See also:common practice for juries to add to their See also:verdict, guilty or not guilty, a rider recommending the accused to See also:mercy on the ground of See also:grave provocation received, or other circumstances which in their view should mitigate the See also:penalty. This See also:form of rider is often added on a verdict of guilty of wilful See also:murder, a See also:crime as to which the judge has no discretion as to punishment, but the recommendation is sent to the See also:Home See also:Office for See also:consideration in advising as to exercise of the See also:prerogative of mercy. Quite independently of any recommendation by the jury, the judge is entitled to take into See also:account matters proved during the trial, or laid before him after verdict, as a See also:guide to him in determining the quantum of punishment. Under the See also:French law (See also:Code d'inslruction criminelle, See also:art. 345), it is the sole right and the See also:duty of a jury in a criminal See also:case to pronounce whether or not the commission of the offence was attended by extenuating circumstances (circonstances attenuantes). They are not See also:bound to say anything about the See also:matter, but the whole or the See also:majority may qualify the verdict by finding extenuation, and if they do, the See also:powers of the See also:court to impose the maximum punishment are taken away and the sentence to be pronounced is reduced in accordance with the See also:scale laid down in art. 463 of the Code penal. The most important result of this See also:rule is to enable a jury to prevent the infliction of capital punishment for murder.

In cases of what is termed " crime passionel," French juries, when they do not acquit, almost invariably find extenuation; and a like verdict has become common even in the case of See also:

cold-blooded and sordid murders, owing to objections to capital punishment.

End of Article: EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES

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