exculpate

present singular third person exculpates · participle present exculpating · participle past exculpated · past exculpated

1. To clear of or to free from guilt; exonerate.

   The inquest on keeper Davidson was duly held, and at the commencement seemed likely to cause Tony Palliser less anxiety than he had expected. Northrop knew all about Tony's flirtation with Lucy Davidson, but it also knew a good deal more about that lady than Tony did, and exculpated him.

   1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 4, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   1896, Edward Manson, J. S. Henderson (editors), Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy and Companies' Winding-Up, Volume 3, Sweet & Maxwell, page 72, When one comes to look at subsection 7, it is quite clear that the Court can only allow expenses to a person ordered to attend for examination if in the opinion of the Court he is exculpated from any of the charges made or suggested against him.

   Only a handful of defendants who are ignorant of the law succeed in exculpating themselves on either of the grounds discussed in Part B.[…]In the examples to which I will refer, defendants who make mistakes of law are exculpated by denying mens rea—the mechanism I described in Part C through which all defendants are exculpated when they plead ignorance of fact.

   2016, Douglas Husak, Ignorance of Law, Oxford University Press, page 113

   Synonyms: absolve, acquit, disculpate, exonerate, pardon, acquittance, assoil, assoilzie · Antonyms: blame, condemn, incriminate, inculpate, indict, accuse, atwite, blame