Intent don't matter. The governing statutes are about how it is handled. Not why or how you felt about the way you handled it. You can test out that theory, in the comfort of your own local jurisdiction. Go speeding down a local highway at something over 100 MPH, weaving around pesky cars doing the speed limit. When you get pulled over, likely from flat tires caused by stop-strips, just tell the officer that it was not our intent to cause harm. If nothing else, it will give them a good chuckle as they handcuff you and haul you away
Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do
I agree, I grew up hearing that ignorance of the law is never an excuse for breaking the law or whether you "intended" to break the law or not and then along came James Comey and said that intent, whether written in the law or not has been practiced for as long as he can remember.
This backs up your point of view and the one I held until Comey came along.
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...lowing-the-law
The relevant statute places a special burden on public officials to safeguard national secrets, making it a crime to remove national defense information from its “proper place of custody” even through mere “gross negligence.” There is no requirement of finding specific intent.
Here is one of the admittedly few arguments to the contrary and these are so called legal experts who have a different opinion.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/sdut-classified-information-clinton-intent-2016jul05-story.html
When FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday that his agency would recommend no criminal charges be filed against Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while secretary of state, he said that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Comey — a former prosecutor and onetime U.S. Attorney in Manhattan who rose to be the second highest-ranking official in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush — came to that conclusion after a year-long investigation into Clinton’s email practices that focused on classified emails that were transmitted and stored on the private server.
The reason? Without going into specifics, Comey said there was no evidence that Clinton intentionally transmitted or mishandled classified information.
And the lack of any evidence of intent — a fundamental aspect to criminal law — tipped the scales in Clinton’s favor, legal experts experienced in prosecutions of mishandling classified information said Tuesday.
“In a classified information case, the most difficult element is always intent — the mental state,” lawyer James P. Melendres said.
So clearly, some legal minds believe intent is there even though the word is not. Isn't this the basis for the whole argument of "Textualism"? "If the word isn't there, it may not be presupposed as to apply". But then we argue about Original Intent, so there is ample history that Intent has been at least part of our legal discussion and understanding from the beginning.
Why do some want to give Judges more leeway than applying the letter of the law to everybody and want to allow intent to be part of a judges consideration.
I'm just trying to point out all the things that go into considering whether intent can be used in legal decisions or it can't or at least shouldn't.
While I usually come down on "intent doesn't matter" others believe it does.
I don't think it is a settled matter and I see that it is being done all the time even if it doesn't exist in law.