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Taking Mistakes Seriously, Paul J. Larkin Jr.

Paul J Larkin Jr.

There are two very different mistake doctrines in the law. The common law doctrine that ignorance of the law is no excuse gives no weight to reasonable, good faith mistakes insofar as criminal liability is concerned. By contrast, three related lines of decisions—the reasonable mistake exception to the exclusionary rule, the qualified immunity doctrine, and the harmless error doctrine—express great willingness to overlook reasonable, good faith mistakes that police officers, prosecutors, and judges make. That discrimination between private parties and government officials is unwarranted. There is no good reason to treat private parties systematically worse than public officials in this …