Comment by Ensorceled
6 years ago
It's okay, there are a number of people in this thread who haven't. The interesting part is, legally, how there are two separate parts: intent (I intended to do this action, why car accidents are not murder) and knowledge (I knew, or should have known, this was a crime).
In this case, they could not form mens rea because, to their knowledge, they had permission to "break into" the building. Like when you lock yourself out of your house and hire a locksmith to "break in". The locksmith has intent, but no "criminal knowledge" because you gave them permission.
I guess the "or should have known" is a key part here. In most cases where the person didn't know, they should have. The difference here being that they _did_ know that they _weren't_, and they had probably taken reasonable steps to ensure that they weren't breaking the law.
Right, "ignorance of the law is no excuse", but in this case they had an exemption.