Penal Law, 5737-1977

The following are the categories of offences according to their gravity:

A person attempts to commit an offence if, with intent to commit it, he performed an act that is more than mere preparation and the offence was not completed.

For the purposes of attempt, it is immaterial whether commission of the offence was impossible by reason of a state of affairs of which the person attempting was unaware or regarding which he was mistaken.

A provision prescribing a mandatory punishment or a minimum punishment for an offence shall not apply to an attempt to commit that offence.

A person who attempted to commit an offence shall not bear criminal liability for the attempt if he proved that, of his own free will and out of repentance, he desisted from completing the act or made a substantial contribution to preventing the consequences upon which completion of the offence is contingent; however, nothing in the foregoing shall derogate from his criminal liability for another completed offence constituted by the act.

One who brings another to commit an offence by persuasion, encouragement, demand, entreaty, or any other means that constitutes the application of pressure, is an instigator to the commission of an offence.

A person who, before the commission of the offence or at the time of its commission, performed an act in order to enable the commission, to facilitate it or to secure it, or to prevent the apprehension of the principal offender, the detection of the offence or its spoils, or in order to contribute in another way to creating conditions for the commission of the offence, is an accomplice.

The punishment for complicity in committing an offence is half the punishment prescribed in a legislative provision for its principal commission; however, if prescribed for it is —

The punishment for an attempt to instigate a person to commit an offence is half the punishment prescribed for its principal commission; however, if prescribed for it is —

A factor that is a condition for the constitution of an offence shall have effect with respect to every party to that offence, even if it does not exist in him; however, a personal factor whose effect under a legislative provision is to aggravate, mitigate, otherwise alter, or preclude the punishment, shall have effect only with respect to that party in whom it exists.

Attempt, instigation, attempt to instigate, or complicity in an offence that is a contravention are not punishable.

Unless otherwise stated in or implied by a legislative provision, every law applicable to the principal commission of the completed offence applies also to an attempt, instigation, attempt to instigate, or complicity in that offence.

Unless otherwise stated in a legislative provision, an act is presumed to have been done in conditions that do not constitute a defence to criminal liability.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act done before he reached the age of twelve years.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act he committed if he was unable to choose between committing it and refraining from it owing to absence of control over his bodily movements in relation to that act, such as an act performed as a result of physical compulsion that the doer could not overcome, in the course of a reflex or convulsive reaction, during sleep, or in a state of automatism or hypnosis.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act he committed if, at the time of the act, by reason of a disease that afflicted his mind or by reason of a deficiency in his intellectual capacity, he substantially lacked the ability —

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act that was immediately necessary in order to repel an unlawful attack from which there arose a tangible danger of harm to his life, liberty, body or property, or to those of another person; however, a person is not acting in self-defence where he brought about the attack by his own wrongful conduct while foreseeing in advance the possibility of the development of events.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act that was immediately necessary in order to save his life, liberty, body or property, or those of another person, from a tangible danger of serious harm arising from a given state of affairs at the time of the act, and he had no other means but to do it.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act he was ordered to do under a threat from which there arose a tangible danger of serious harm to his life, liberty, body or property, or to those of another person, and which he was compelled to do as a result.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act he committed in any of the following circumstances:

The provisions of sections 34k and 34l shall not apply where the person was under a duty by law or by virtue of his position to face the danger or the threat.

The provisions of sections 34j, 34k and 34l shall not apply where the act was not reasonable in the circumstances of the case for the purpose of preventing the harm.

A person shall not bear criminal liability for an act if, in view of the nature of the act, its circumstances, its results and the public interest, the act is of negligible gravity.

For the purposes of criminal liability, it is immaterial whether the person imagined that his act was not prohibited, owing to a mistake as to the existence of a criminal prohibition or as to his understanding of the prohibition, unless the mistake was not reasonably avoidable.

A judicial office holder shall not bear criminal liability for an act he committed in the performance of his judicial functions, even if he thereby exceeded the bounds of his jurisdiction.