You`ll be angry that your girlfriend didn`t cook the cupcakes she promised for your cake sale – until you learned of the extenuating circumstances: her dog got on her kitchen counter and ate all the cupcake dough. To mitigate is to “make forgivable”. A situation or condition that provides an excuse for an action, as in Although Nancy missed three crucial rehearsals, there were extenuating circumstances for her not to be fired. This term was originally legal terminology and referred to circumstances that partially excuse a crime and therefore require fewer penalties or damages. [c. 1600] mitigating circumstance, a circumstance that reduces the guilt of a person who has committed a crime and can therefore be considered a mitigating sentence. Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for mitigation Mitigating circumstances are aggravating factors that can increase punishment in a criminal environment. Civil law countries make much greater use of minimum sentences for crimes and have therefore had to develop more formal doctrines of mitigating circumstances. The Italian Penal Code contains a list of mitigating circumstances, such as the fact that the accused acted on honorary grounds, that he committed the crime in a state of intense emotion caused by a serious misfortune, or that he made reparation for the damage by compensating him before the trial. The French Penal Code and the Japanese Penal Code provide for a reduction of sentence according to a prescribed scale if the jury or court considers that mitigating circumstances are present. Many Anglo-American legal systems do not prescribe minimum sentences for all crimes. The judge is therefore free to take into account all the circumstances when setting the maximum prescribed sentence. Some special circumstances automatically reduce a crime to a lesser extent; For example, provocation of the accused by the victim reduces first-degree murder to manslaughter or second-degree murder.
In England, the jury may reduce a murder charge to manslaughter if it is found that the accused suffers from diminished guilt (as opposed to mental illness, which allows acquittal). Extenuating circumstances – also known as mitigating factors – are facts or details that are important for a complete understanding of a situation. However, the acts of a person in this case could be considered less serious, or that person`s guilt for those acts could be reduced. In criminal proceedings, the demonstration of mitigating circumstances may result in a lower charge or a reduced sentence, such as a shorter sentence. In civil matters, mitigating circumstances may reduce the amount of damages awarded. The adjective mitigating is unusual because it is almost always used with the word circumstances; The term extenuating circumstances describes the specific reasons that excuse or justify a person`s actions. The term became popular in the 1840s and is even used in law to reduce punishment for crimes, but before that, mitigate meant “reduce or make small.” The Latin word for “thin,” tenuis, combined with ex, means “to make thin,” or dilute a person`s guilt due to good excuses. Mitigation is almost always used today before “circumstances”.
Extenuating circumstances are an important concept in law. Of course, if you steal to feed your children, you are less guilty than someone who steals just to get rich. If you kill someone in self-defense, it is obviously a mitigating circumstance that distinguishes your act from murder. Juries will generally consider extenuating circumstances (even if ordered not to do so), and most judges will also listen carefully to an argument about mitigating circumstances. And they also work outside the courtroom; If you miss your daughter`s appearance at the college parade, she can forgive you if it was because you had to take Tigrou to the vet`s emergency room. I wish I could write to you in better circumstances, but unfortunately those lanes have been closed. The sinister instability of life in shelters is hardly a recipe for success at best. It was depressing to go to bed in such circumstances with the cry of an Arctic storm for a lullaby. The blame, if given in Morris` circumstances, is anti-Viagra. Extenuating circumstances can be exceptional circumstances that are unusual factors related to an event, such as the very young age of an accused in a murder case. n. the surrounding factors (sometimes called mitigations) that make a crime appear less serious, less serious or without criminal intent, and therefore warrant a lighter sentence or charge (e.g., manslaughter instead of murder).
(See: Extenuating Circumstances) And as he got used to these changing circumstances, he shouted a second time: Wait! It wasn`t a strange sight for the boy at the time, but it was unpleasant under the circumstances, as he didn`t have a gun or spear. n. in criminal law, conditions or events which do not excuse or justify criminal conduct, but which are considered unjustified by leniency or fairness when deciding on the degree of offence imputed to the prosecutor or influencing the reduction of sentence in the event of conviction. Example: A young man shoots his father after years of being beaten, belittled, insulted and treated without love. The “warmth of passion” or the “decrease in capacity” are forms of such extenuating circumstances. Never before in the human experience has such a display of kindness and deep regret been experienced in similar circumstances. Gender roles go beyond the biological circumstances of birth and may be much less likely to change. Extenuating circumstances make a crime less bad or less reprehensible. They do not reduce the degree of a crime, although they may reduce the sentence imposed. It was out of the question to move forward in such circumstances, so he set about building a miniature hut with snow. I was in these circumstances for four hours, waiting and wishing that every moment would be my last. Facts surrounding the commission of a crime to mitigate or diminish it.
