Criminal Liability Exemptions and Sentencing Factors

Title V: Criminal Liability

Article 34: Grounds for Exemption from Punishment

The following individuals shall not be punished:

1. Incapacity, Unconsciousness, or Mistake of Fact

   One who, at the time of the event, was unable to understand the criminality of the act or to direct their actions due to:

   • Failure or morbid alteration of their faculties;
   • A state of unconsciousness; or
   • Mistake or ignorance of fact not attributable to them.

   Judicial Measures for Incapacity

   In case of morbid alterations, the court may order the detention of the agent in a mental hospital. The agent shall not leave except by judicial decision, after hearing the public prosecutor and receiving an opinion from experts declaring the disappearance of the danger of the patient injuring themselves or others.

   In other cases where a proceeding results in acquittal for the reasons listed in this subsection, the court shall order the imprisonment of the individual in an appropriate institution until the dangerous conditions that necessitated the measure have disappeared.

2. Coercion or Duress

   One who acts compelled by overwhelming physical force or threats of suffering serious and imminent harm.

3. State of Necessity

   One who acts to avoid an imminent evil, provided that the resulting action does not cause a greater evil than the one avoided.

4. Fulfillment of Duty or Exercise of Right

   One who acts in pursuance of a duty or in the legitimate exercise of a right, authority, or office.

5. Obedience to Orders

   One who acts under orders.

6. Self-Defense

   One who acts in self-defense of person or rights, provided that the following circumstances concur:

   1. Unlawful aggression;
   2. Rational necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it; and
   3. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the defender.

   Presumption of Self-Defense in Home Invasion

   It is understood that these circumstances are met with respect to one who repels an overnight burglary or the breaking of fences, walls, or entrances to their home, apartment, or occupied units, whatever the damage to the aggressor. This also applies to anyone who finds a stranger inside their home, wherever there is resistance.

7. Defense of Others

   One who acts in defense of the person or rights of another, provided that conditions (a) and (b) of the previous paragraph are met, and provided that if there was sufficient provocation preceding the aggression, the third-party defender did not participate in it.

Article 40: Setting Divisible Penalties

For penalties divisible by reason of time or amount, the court shall set the sentence in accordance with the mitigating or aggravating circumstances particular to each case and in accordance with the rules of the following article.

Article 41: Factors Determining Sentencing

For the purposes of the preceding article, the court shall take into account:

1. Nature of the Action and Damage Caused

   The nature of the action, the means employed to execute it, and the extent of the damage and danger caused.

2. Personal Circumstances of the Subject

   The age, education, customs, and previous behavior of the subject; the quality of the motives that determined the commission of the crime, especially misery or the difficulty of making a living for themselves and their dependents; the participation they took in the act; any recurrences incurred; and other personal background and ties, as well as the quality of the victims and the circumstances of time, place, method, and opportunity that demonstrate their degree of dangerousness.

The court must take direct and visu knowledge of the subject, the victim, and the circumstances of the act to the extent required for each case.