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Crimes-Mistake Of Facts Of A Defense

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was convicted of bigamy under the usual statute (in this case, Fla. Comp, L., 1927, secs. 7559-7660) punishing as bigamous any person remarrying while the former spouse was still living, unless that spouse had been absent three years, the party remarrying not knowing the other to be alive during that time, or unless a legal divorce had been granted. The defense was, that as the defendant's first wife had told him and others that she had secured a divorce and had remarried, and had introduced to him her second husband, he honestly believed her. It was held, …