State v. Sexton

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

“Once again, we must reconcile anomalies and ambiguities that inhere in the Code of Criminal Justice ... occasioned by the Legislature’s selective inclusion and omission of provisions of its conceptual source, the Model Penal Code (MPC).” Richardson v. Nickolopoulos, 110 N.J. 241, 242, 540 A.2d 1246 (1988).

The “anomalies and ambiguities” presented in this appeal concern the meaning of N.J.S.A. 2C:2-4, governing the so-called mistake-of-fact defense to a criminal charge. Specifically, the question is how to explain to the jury the effect of a…