mitigating circumstance

English Thesaurus

1. (law) a circumstance that does not exonerate a person but which reduces the penalty associated with the offense (noun.cognition)

hypernym	:	circumstance, condition, consideration,
definition	:	information that should be kept in mind when making a decision (noun.cognition)

domain category	:	jurisprudence, law,
definition	:	the collection of rules imposed by authority (noun.group)