What's the difference between exculpation and excuse?

Exculpation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of exculpating from alleged fault or crime; that which exculpates; excuse.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The introduction in 1968 of the legal concept of Grave Abnormal into the penal code, Development of the Personality Amounting to a Disorder made possible criminal exculpation on the basis of psychosocial maldevelopment.
  • (2) Some subjects presented a state of psychopathic decompensation of a psychotic level at the moment of the law-breaking act, which accounts for exculpation of this group.
  • (3) Thus exculpated, he was able, in his own mind, to show off his extravagant talent.
  • (4) To these assorted exculpations I reply: "Do me a favour, love!"
  • (5) However, by attempting to limit the admission of liability to the two years between 2004 and 2006 – and by so doing effectively sacrificing two senior executives and former editor Andy Coulson – she appears to be trying to exculpate herself from the scandal."
  • (6) Even the patient's own repeated request does not exculp the doctor if he directly acts to end the life of the patient before the disease has run its natural course (sections 77, 78 StGB).
  • (7) It is unethical and irresponsible to not tell the patient experiments are being conducted on him, to charge the patient to perform research on him, or to ask the patient to sign an informed consent aimed at exculpating the doctor rather than protecting the patient.
  • (8) In most such cases, exculpation is based primarily on the specific content of their delusions and how it comports with the law of the jurisdiction specific content of their delusions and how it comports with the law of the jurisdiction in which the act was committed (the lex loci delicti commissi).
  • (9) That‘s what grates you isn’t it, that the company’s shopped you?” Pharo replied: “No, what really grates me is that the company has provided a fraction of the evidence in this case and we fitted the bill.” Wright asked him how these missing emails could exculpate him, suggesting they were a “smoke screen” in his trial.
  • (10) The 1992 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Foucha v. Louisiana, holding that the Constitution does not permit the continued confinement of a still dangerous, but no longer mentally ill, insanity acquittee, makes it all the more necessary that the insanity defense be abolished and that an offender's mental illness be considered primarily in the context of mitigation, disposition and sentencing, rather than exculpation.
  • (11) Nor had he provided his understrappers with any lines of defence, any excuses or exculpation for a decision that went against everything he had declared in the past few months.
  • (12) In order for an impairment of understanding or of self-control to exculpate, the offence must be causally connected with the impairment in question.
  • (13) What a farrago of self-regarding, self-congratulatory self-exculpation it was!
  • (14) This formulation permits the defendant possessed of mere surface knowledge or cognition to be exculpated, requiring that he have a deeper affective appreciation of the legal and moral import of the conduct involved if he is to be held criminally responsible.
  • (15) Yes, of course we need to focus on that but it should in no way exculpate the people who have done this, the criminals and scumbags responsible for terrorist atrocities in our country and around the world.” On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Rudd also said the report had never been intended to be shared publicly.
  • (16) Those who died during hospitalisation, were fully exculpated more often than those who survived at the end of their term; furthermore, they had served their sentences on the average for a longer time than the survivors.
  • (17) The rationale of exculpation in general, which applies also to the case of mental illness, is that the offence does not indicate a morally bad attitude in the offender.
  • (18) The former solicitor general added: "The current issue surely is should somebody be investigating something in which their brother has been named, however he may in due course be exculpated?
  • (19) No other executive said anything remotely designed to exculpate her.
  • (20) Although delusions are prima facie evidence of psychosis, their mere presence is not a sufficient condition for exculpation on the grounds of insanity.

Excuse


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To free from accusation, or the imputation of fault or blame; to clear from guilt; to release from a charge; to justify by extenuating a fault; to exculpate; to absolve; to acquit.
  • (v. t.) To pardon, as a fault; to forgive entirely, or to admit to be little censurable, and to overlook; as, we excuse irregular conduct, when extraordinary circumstances appear to justify it.
  • (v. t.) To regard with indulgence; to view leniently or to overlook; to pardon.
  • (v. t.) To free from an impending obligation or duty; hence, to disengage; to dispense with; to release by favor; also, to remit by favor; not to exact; as, to excuse a forfeiture.
  • (v. t.) To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
  • (v. t.) The act of excusing, apologizing, exculpating, pardoning, releasing, and the like; acquittal; release; absolution; justification; extenuation.
  • (v. t.) That which is offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or irregular deportment; apology; as, an excuse for neglect of duty; excuses for delay of payment.
  • (v. t.) That which excuses; that which extenuates or justifies a fault.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As he told us: 'Individual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves.'
  • (2) We need to stop making excuses for them: But it is up to the state to close the loopholes Yes, the state must work continually to tighten and simplify the tax regime, which is a deliberate mess keeping an entire industry of accounting firms and tax lawyers fed.
  • (3) "With hindsight," he writes, "it was a trumped-up excuse for radical activism for its own sake."
  • (4) The Frenchman has been excused from duty at Everton on Saturday on compassionate grounds and the club have put no time frame on his possible return.
  • (5) Becton’s lawyer, Hannah Stroud, told a separate news conference that stress was no excuse for Casebolt’s actions and “the manner in which Ms Becton was treated was excessive, inappropriate and without cause” and a civil rights violation.
  • (6) Well, Machado put those skills on display on Sunday, and this is an excuse to bring you his ridiculous play against the Yankees.
  • (7) This prompted an angry response from the bill's sponsors who accused opponents of using border security as an excuse to block any immigration reform.
  • (8) This lovely coastal route also gives you an excuse to hop on the Skye ferry, which plies its way over the narrows to Kylerhea from the start of this walk.
  • (9) I think the French manager told him ‘it’s very difficult to watch you when you’re not playing for PSG’ – he hasn’t got that excuse now.” Palace are also well worth watching.
  • (10) I'm not a believer, and my only problem with artistic licence is when the phrase is used as an excuse to oversimplify a work to improve its marketability.
  • (11) Nothing in this context can be soft-pedalled and excused.
  • (12) He continues: “And a ‘no excuses’ culture where excellence is the norm.” Police were called by a member of the public shortly after 11am after reports of a disturbance outside the school in George V Avenue, where a number of parents and pupils had gathered.
  • (13) The current IRS controversy does not excuse sham political organizations masquerading as social welfare organizations, and shines a light on the critical need for campaign spending disclosure legislation.
  • (14) David Winnick, the MP for Walsall North, said: "None of [May's] excuses can explain away the sheer incompetence and shambles that have occurred on her watch."
  • (15) Sessions are scheduled regularly throughout the year and take place outside the hospital; interns are excused from their service responsibilities for the duration of the meeting.
  • (16) "There is no excuse to cut back on services that patients depend on.
  • (17) His team had been working on a protest-themed game for the past two years, and the frenzy surrounding Occupy Central gave them an excuse to release a prototype.
  • (18) After years of on-and-off e-dating, in which I've met 150-200 women, fallen in love with one and invented extravagant excuses to extricate myself from awkward encounters with countless others, you might think I'd be tired of it all.
  • (19) "We are always followed by a crowd of people – not journalists, but people who are following us and track our every move, and look for any excuse to detain us."
  • (20) The bar on religious weddings was meant to reassure the faithful, but the Church of England has twisted the weird and novel distinction between religious and secular marriages into an excuse to oppose the whole reform , while it is left to Labour's Yvette Cooper to speak for liberal Jews and Quakers who resent the continuing bar on them offering ceremonial equality.

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