Kipp v. Delaware

Hugh Kipp (defendant) was charged with possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person after police found firearms and hunting bows in his home; Kipp had previously pled guilty to misdemeanor assault, a crime of violence causing injury that under Delaware's weapons statute should have triggered the prohibition, but his guilty-plea form had been pre-marked "N/A" in the space noting loss of weapons rights, and neither the judge nor prosecutor at that earlier plea corrected the error. Kipp testified he was affirmatively told the weapons prohibition did not apply to a misdemeanor plea, and after being convicted of three counts of unlawful possession, he appealed asserting a mistake-of-law defense, which the state conceded should result in reversal.