Odger's English Common Law

128 THE ELEMENTS OF A CRIME.
she acted under his coercion and excuses her from punishment,
although there be no evidence of any actual intimidation on
his part. Such immunity is not granted to a wife who com-
mits one of the graver felonies, such as treason, murder or
manslaughter, iu the presence of or under the actual coercion of
her husband. It is only admissible in the less serious felonies,
such as burglary, larceny, robbery, forgery, felonious assault
or sending threatening letters, and in most misdemeanours.
And even in these cases special circumstances—as, for instance,
that the husband was a cripple and bedridden—may be given
in evidence to repel the presumption of coercion. Again, if it
be proved that the wife took a leading part in the commission
of the crime voluntarily and not by the constraint of her
husband, then the mere fact that he was present will not excuse
her from punishment. And so a married woman may be con-
victed for keeping a brothel or a gaming house either with or
without her husband being joined as her co-defendant; for in
the management of a house the wife takes a leading part. But
where the wife commits a crime in the absence of her husband,
no presumption of coercion arises, even though she did the act
by his express command and under the influence of threats of
violence on his part. She will be convicted as a principal and
he as an accessory before the fact. 1
There can, then, be no criminal intent unless the accused
has mental capacity, is a free agent, and knows right from
wrong. But even in some cases where these three circum-
stances concur, he may still have no guilty mind and there-
fore be innocent of crime. Such a state of _ things exists
where the accused has done a criminal act under an honest
and reasonable mistake of fact. The mistake must be of such
a kind that, had the facts been as the prisoner honestly
believed them to be, his act would have been no crime. But
if he would still be liable to criminal proceedings if the facts
were as he supposed them to be, his mistake of fact will
afford him no defence.
Where a son, believing that his father was cutting the throat of his
mother, shot and killed him, it was held that if he had reasonable grounds
1 See post, Book VI., Chap. I., Married Women.