Can. 1323 The following are not subject to a penalty when they have violated a law or precept:

1° a person who has not yet completed the sixteenth year of age;

2° a person who without negligence was ignorant that he or she violated a law or precept; inadvertence and error are equivalent to ignorance;

3° a person who acted due to physical force or a chance occurrence which the person could not foresee or, if foreseen, avoid;

4° a person who acted coerced by grave fear, even if only relatively grave, or due to necessity or grave inconvenience unless the act is intrinsically evil or tends to the harm of souls;

5° a person who acted with due moderation against an unjust aggressor for the sake of legitimate self defense or defense of another;

6° a person who lacked the use of reason, without prejudice to the prescripts of canons ⇒ 1324, §1, n. 2 and ⇒ 1325;

7° a person who without negligence thought that one of the circumstances mentioned in numbers 4 or 5 was present.

Can. 1324 §1. The perpetrator of a violation is not exempt from a penalty, but the penalty established by law or precept must be tempered or a penance employed in its place if the delict was committed:

1° by a person who had only the imperfect use of reason;

2° by a person who lacked the use of reason because of drunkenness or another similar culpable disturbance of mind;

3° from grave heat of passion which did not precede and hinder all deliberation of mind and consent of will and provided that the passion itself had not been stimulated or fostered voluntarily;

4° by a minor who has completed the age of sixteen years;

5° by a person who was coerced by grave fear, even if only relatively grave, or due to necessity or grave inconvenience if the delict is intrinsically evil or tends to the harm of souls;

6° by a person who acted without due moderation against an unjust aggressor for the sake of legitimate self defense or defense of another;

7° against someone who gravely and unjustly provokes the person;

8° by a person who thought in culpable error that one of the circumstances mentioned in ⇒ canon 1323, numbers 4 or 5 was present;

9° by a person who without negligence did not know that a penalty was attached to a law or precept;

10° by a person who acted without full imputability provided that the imputability was grave.

§2. A judge can act in the same manner if another circumstance is present which diminishes the gravity of a delict.

§3. In the circumstances mentioned in §1, the accused is not bound by a latae sententiae penalty.