Section 566.020

Title XXXVIII CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT; PEACE OFFICERS AND PUBLIC DEFENDERS

Chapter 566

Effective - 05 Jun 2006, 3 histories, see footnote   (history) 

  566.020.  Mistake as to incapacity or age — consent not a defense, when. — 1. Whenever in this chapter the criminality of conduct depends upon a victim's being incapacitated, no crime is committed if the actor reasonably believed that the victim was not incapacitated and reasonably believed that the victim consented to the act. The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of belief as to capacity and consent.

  2. Whenever in this chapter the criminality of conduct depends upon a child being thirteen years of age or younger, it is no defense that the defendant believed the child to be older.

  3. Whenever in this chapter the criminality of conduct depends upon a child being under seventeen years of age, it is an affirmative defense that the defendant reasonably believed that the child was seventeen years of age or older.

  4. Consent is not an affirmative defense to any offense under chapter 566 if the alleged victim is less than twelve years of age.

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(L. 1977 S.B. 60, A.L. 1994 S.B. 693, A.L. 2006 H.B. 1698, et al.)

Effective 6-5-06