The verb exonerate is presented as a synonym of alleviating or unloading and is used to mention that someone stops having responsibility for something and, consequently, is released from their possible guilt.
Exoneration as the action of exonerating indicates that a person is freed from assuming a certain responsibility, since it does not correspond to him for some reason. To illustrate this idea, it may be useful to resort to a simple example: the obligation to pay the VAT tax. This tax is of a general nature, although the legislation itself contemplates a series of circumstances in which it is not mandatory to pay said tax and, therefore, there is an exemption in certain cases.
As a general idea, exemption implies that there is a mandatory rule that affects everyone equally, but every rule has its exceptions and each exception is a way of exempting someone, of exonerating him.
In the field of law
The term in question has an obvious legal dimension. We could say that if someone is exonerated for something, this means that no legal responsibility can be legally required. For this reason, exoneration clauses are sometimes established, since in this way whoever signs said clauses avoids being considered responsible or guilty of some acts. The liability exemption clauses are questioned by some jurists, since they consider that certain responsibilities cannot be agreed a priori to be exonerated, since no clause is valid in the event that it opposes what the law establishes.
In the context of criminal law the concept of exoneration is frequently used in connection with the idea of criminal responsibility. A criminal can be exonerated of his responsibility if a series of exonerating circumstances arise: a transitory mental disorder, a state of high intoxication or by some significant alteration of the intellectual capacity.
Among the most common causes of criminal exoneration, legitimate defense is the best known. There is a circumstance that is also used as a possible argument to avoid responsibility: the state of need (for example, in the case that someone stole for the sole purpose of feeding).
The causes of exoneration are contemplated in the penal code of a nation, although this does not prevent a possible legal discussion on some causes. A clear example is the exoneration due to the line of duty. This legal figure has been used on many occasions to avoid criminal responsibility, as happened in the Nuremberg trials in which Nazi soldiers were tried at the end of World War II.
