Penal Law § 25.00 · Article 25. Defenses In General
Defenses; burden of proof
Verbatim from the official edition
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 25.00 Defenses; burden of proof.
1. When a "defense," other than an "affirmative defense," defined by statute is raised at a trial, the people have the burden of disproving such defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
2. When a defense declared by statute to be an "affirmative defense" is raised at a trial, the defendant has the burden of establishing such defense by a preponderance of the evidence.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN25.00
- Text hash
- sha256 12332bc0c772d1ea396234a7ca6de3a28e960b1d2936878c52d0b0a7f1f9bb5d
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.