And they believe that Hewlett-Packard's management, led by Carleton S. Fiorina, the chief executive, is simply mistaken in the belief that becoming bigger will necessarily make Hewlett-Packard stronger.

"I was simply mistaken in terms of the Bill Cosby money," said the longtime Jackson associate, Frank Watkins, speaking of the explanation he gave Tuesday when Mr. Jackson's Presidential campaign released four years of the candidate's income tax returns.

However, some spurious open reading frames might have been mistaken as genes simply after their position in the genome, and might not be true genes.

Will Mr. Marquez own up eventually to hitting the jackpot, or were his co-workers - blinded by the potential luxuries and easy lifestyles of untold riches - simply mistaken?

A Cotecna spokesman said the executive was simply mistaken; he said the company had informed the panel that the statement was made in error as soon as it was discovered.

A retired police officer who worked on the case told journalists in 2011 that the logs were simply mistaken in reporting that a woman's body was found downstairs.

Could these approaches actually prevent piracy, or do you think their backers are simply mistaken?

Fox's response was understandable: Mr. Stewart is simply mistaken; he simply missed the fact that the stations were being bought with money from the News Corporation.

In the interview today, Mr. Darden described Mr. Fung as "an honest man doing the best he can, who is simply mistaken on some points about a single day 10 months ago."

Adams later clarified in an interview that Ford "had simply mistaken the dominant life form."