Subjective and objective standard of reasonableness

In United States criminal law, subjective standard and objective standard are legal standards for knowledge or beliefs of a defendant in a criminal law case.[1][2]:554–559[3] An objective standard of reasonableness requires the finder of fact to view the circumstances from the standpoint of a hypothetical reasonable person, absent the unique particular physical and psychological characteristics of the defendant. A subjective standard of reasonableness asks whether the circumstances would produce an honest and reasonable belief in a person having the particular mental and physical characteristics of the defendant, such as their personal knowledge and personal history, when the same circumstances might not produce the same in a general reasonable person.[3]

A case differentiating the standards is State v. Leidholm (1983).[2]

People v. Serravo (1992), hinged on the distinction.[2]:554–559

In People v. Serravo (1992), the court found that the standard of knowledge of moral wrongness in the M'Naghten rule is the objective standard. The court wrote, "Moral wrong can be interpreted either by a purely personal and subjective standard or morality or by a societal and presumably more objective standard. We believe that the better reasoned interpretation of 'wrong in the term 'incapable of distinguishing right from wrong' refers to a wrongful act measured by societal standard of morality."

References
  1. Quimbe Legal Definitions, "Subjective standard of reasonableness", Definition - A standard that assesses the reasonableness of a defendant’s actions based on what the defendant perceived.",
  2. Criminal Law - Cases and Materials, 7th ed. 2012, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business; John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, ISBN 978-1-4548-0698-1,
  3. State v. Leidholm, Supreme Court of North Dakota, 334 N.W.2d 811 (1983)
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