Probably the assumption by the judge that Miss Anthony in fact voted,
did her no real injustice, as it was a notorious fact that she did vote,
and claimed the right to do so. But all this made it no less an
usurpation for the judge to take the case from the jury, and order a
verdict of guilty to be entered up without consulting them.
There was, however, a real injustice done her by the course of the
judge, inasmuch as the mere fact of her voting, and voting unlawfully,
was not enough for her conviction. It is a perfectly settled rule of law
that there must exist an intention to do an illegal act, to make an act
a crime. It is, of course, not necessary that a person perpetrating a
crime should have an actual knowledge of a certain law which forbids the
act, but he must have a criminal intent. Thus, if one is charged with
theft, and admits the taking of the property, which is clearly proved to
have belonged to another, it is yet a good defence that he really
believed that he had a right to take it, or that he took it by mistake.
Just so in a case where, as sometimes occurs, the laws regulating the
right to vote in a State are of doubtful meaning, and a voter is
uncertain whether he has a right to vote in one town or another, and,
upon taking advice from good counsel, honestly makes up his mind that he
has a right to vote in the town of A.
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