What is Considered an Attempted Crime?

If you try to commit a crime but fail to succeed, you could be prosecuted for attempting to commit that offense. Even if you were unsuccessful in carrying out the actual crime, this doesn't mean you will be spared from facing the penalties. Depending on the nature of the attempted crime, the consequences of punishment for such a crime could be serious and carry hefty penalties. This blog dives further into the meaning and details of an attempted crime.

What is an Attempted Crime Under California Law?

According to California PC 663, 664, and 21a, attempting to commit any crime is itself an offense. Many people are surprised to find that they could be charged with attempting to commit an offense even if they reconsider their position and willingly abandon the endeavor. California's Attempted Crimes Laws are intended to punish any individual who makes an effort but fails to perpetrate an offense. A person could be convicted of an attempt if they come alarmingly close to committing any crime but don't do so. The term "attempt" is broadly explained in three elements: intent, substantial step, and failure to commit the offense.

Intent

Even though an attempt doesn't lead to the actual commission of the offense, prosecuting a person for an attempt necessitates strong evidence of intent to perpetrate the act. A person cannot be convicted of attempting to commit a crime if he or she does it unintentionally. Rather, the prosecution must establish that the offender intended to conduct the crime he or she attempted and simply failed to do so. Due to this, an attempt is classified as a "particular intent" offense. This implies that acting recklessly or negligently is insufficient to prove an attempted accusation.

One limitation to this basic principle is the transferred intent concept. According to transferred intent, a person who means to commit an offense against one individual but inadvertently harms another person could be held liable for either one or both offenses. For instance, if a defendant wants to shoot his or her spouse but accidentally kills the partner's friend who is seated nearby when the offender fires the pistol, he or she could be charged with the murder of the partner's friend (since the defendant's intention transfers to the partner's friend) as well as the attempted murder of the spouse (since the offender's original intention was to kill him or her.)

Substantial Step

In most jurisdictions, a prosecutor should show that the offender took a significant step toward completing the offense, in addition to intent. A significant step entails more than just preparing to execute the crime. It's not enough to just talk about the act or think about it with friends. Rather, the action should be in a manner that drives the defendant closer to completing the crime successfully, even if the act is never entirely carried out. For instance, if an individual wants to commit arson but only mulls over a possible plot in his mind or discusses it with a friend, it's unlikely that the individual will be charged with an attempt.

Failure to Execute the Crime

An attempt charge also necessitates that the offender didn't complete the offense he or she was attempting to commit. This is because attempting to commit a crime is a different offense that cannot be tried alongside the actual crime. Rather than being convicted of attempted murder, the offender will be tried for murder if he or she accomplishes the offense.

Common Examples of Attempted Crimes

It's worth noting that attempting to commit a crime is punishable under California PC 664. It's not convicted under the legislation for the objective offense. As a result, a murder attempt would be tried as PC 664 instead of PC 187. The following are some of the most common California attempted offenses.

Attempted Murder

California's statute, PC 187a/664, defines attempted murder as an offense when an offender means to kill a person and undertakes a direct step to kill him or her, but the person fails to perish. A 'direct step' necessitates more than just planning. It's the process of putting the strategy into action. This means that if an outside force had not intervened, the crime would have happened.

Almost anything could be used as direct action. Here are several examples:

• Stabbing somebody in the chest with a knife
• Pointing a firearm at someone
• Using a hitman to assassinate someone

Here are some examples of preparing for murder. However, in an attempted murder case, these aren't considered direct steps:

• Purchasing a knife
• Preparing a firearm for use
• Researching "murder for hire"

It is important to keep in mind that a "direct step" doesn't have to incorporate physical contact with the intended target. Even though no direct interaction occurs, a person could be guilty of attempted murder just by carrying out a motive to kill.

Note that all attempted crimes, except for attempted murder (PC 187/664), are prohibited by California PC 21a.

Attempted Rape

To comprehend an attempted crime, you first need to understand what the accomplished crime is. A California statute defines rape as any sexual activity carried out without the victim's consent using any of the following methods:

• Violent action or force
• Duress or coercion
• Loss of consciousness
• Intoxication
• Mental disorder or impairment
• Threats made against the complainant or someone else
• Fear of physical injury to the complainant or another person
• Deception or fraud

The essential element of rape is the complainant didn't or was not willing to offer his or her approval to sexual activity. According to the definition of rape, attempted rape is the intention of having sexual contact or intercourse with another individual without their consent to sexual penetration. The victim could be able to resist the perpetrator before any penetration occurs, or the offender would change his or her mind and abandon the act.

The prosecutor should prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the offender meant to rape the victim and advanced to take a direct (albeit ineffectual) step towards doing so. Indications or proof of attempted rape would include the removal of the victim's garments or evidence of wounds sustained while fighting against the assault.

Attempted Burglary

It's important to understand a burglary crime before we can talk about an attempted burglary. Section 459 of California's Penal Code states:

"Any individual who accesses any house, apartment, room, shop, tenement, warehouse, stable, store or any other structure, vessel, tent, floating household, sealed or locked freight container, railroad vehicle, whether or not attached to a car, any house vehicle, inhabited camper, vehicles with locked doors, airplanes, mines, or any underground automobile thereof, to engage in petit larceny, grand or any criminal act, is guilty of a burglary offense."

To be convicted of California PC 459, you should have:

• Entered a vehicle or structure
• Committed theft or any felony willfully and knowingly

Let's take a simple illustration of attempted burglary to see how you would be convicted of it. Assume you're planning to sneak into a fine jewelry store and steal as many precious goods as you can. You purchase a mask, a glass cutter, gloves, and a tool to destroy the surveillance cameras in preparation for the act. You head over to the store late at night and begin breaking the door lock. The alarm is then triggered. Before successfully breaking the door lock, a law enforcement officer arrives at the scene and arrests you.

In this case, you didn't commit the burglary since you never entered the fine jewelry store and took anything. When you attempted to force open the door lock, you took a direct step towards entering the facility. Furthermore, the presence of a mask, glass cutter, gloves, and a surveillance camera scrambler is proof that you had the intention of stealing once you entered the facility. As a result of your arrest, you will most certainly face charges of attempted burglary under PC 459 and 664, respectively.

Assault and Battery

A battery crime is defined under California PC 242 as "any intentional and illegal use of force and/or violence on another person." Even if the complainant is not injured or in pain, the crime could be charged. All that's needed is that you make offensive physical contact with the victim.

On the other hand, the assault crime is described by California PC 240 as "an illegal attempt, paired with a clear intention, to cause physical harm to the body of the victim." Although the terms "assault and battery" are sometimes used interchangeably, assault and battery, as defined in PC 242, are two separate offenses. A battery offense is characterized as the deliberate use of illegal force and/or violence against another person, as opposed to an assault that is merely an attempt.

The following are "components" of an assault crime that the prosecution needs to prove for you to be found guilty of the offense:

• You committed an offense that, by nature, would almost certainly lead to the use of force against someone else
• That was a deliberate act on your part
• You knew the circumstances that could cause a reasonable individual to conclude that the action would immediately and almost certainly lead to the use of force on that individual when you acted
• You had the potential to use force against that individual at the time you acted

Sanctions For An Attempted Crime

The sanction for an attempted crime under PC 21 (a) is determined by the underlying offense's sentencing guidelines. If the prosecution establishes the accomplished crime, the attempted offense is included, which means that a defendant can be charged with either murder or attempted murder, but not both.

Under PC 664, a defendant can't be convicted of jail or prison time, or pay fines that are greater than half the jail term or a fine for the primary offense. If a violation is penalized with a one-thousand dollar fine, then attempting to commit the same offense cannot be punished with a fine exceeding $500.

The Defense of an Attempted Crime

Most attempted crime trials will have grounds for contending evidence that shows the aspects of the attempted crime. There are 2 additional defense strategies to attempt offenses that you could be able to use: Impossibility and abandonment/renunciation

Impossibility

When an accused tries to break the law but takes no action due to the crime's impossibility, he or she could invoke the impossibility defense. This defense strategy is only applicable to cases involving legal impossibility and not factual impossibility.

Legal impossibility has long been seen as a valid defense option for an individual charged with an attempted crime. This happens when a perpetrator accomplishes all of his or her intentions to conduct the crime but fails to meet all of the conditions of a common legislation offense. Even if the offender thought he or she was breaking the law – even if he or she wasn't – the offender hasn't done anything wrong. The impossibility defense strategy is based on the idea that trying to do something that isn't illegal cannot be deemed an attempt to commit a violation.

Committing factually impossible acts, on the other hand, is not a valid justification. When the evidence demonstrates that the targeted offense was not possible to execute, but the offender felt it was, then the defense can be adopted. Factual impossibility will not exonerate the accused of guilt because he was attempting to execute the charged offense. Even though the crime was never committed, somebody could still be charged with an attempted crime if he or she was certain that he or she was able to commit it.

Abandonment/Renunciation Defense

This defense covers any incomplete or inchoate crime, including attempts, conspiracy, and solicitation. The terms "renunciation" and "abandonment" can be applied alternatively. The accused could argue the abandonment defensive strategy if the prosecutor can prove that you knowingly and entirely decided to withdraw from committing the offense before its accomplishment. This is not regarded as a legitimate defense if the offender halted the crime to evade arrest, decided to seek a different victim, or assessed that the offense was too hard or risky to commit.

Frequently Asked Questions about Attempted Crimes

Clients accused of attempting to commit an offense under California PC 21 frequently contact us with inquiries. Some of the popular queries are as follows:

What If I Purported to Assist Someone in Committing a Crime While Actually Calling the Police to Capture the Offender in Action? Will I Be Charged With Attempting to Commit a Crime?

Probably. If the prosecutor could prove that you seemed to have a purpose to accomplish the offense or that you meant to help in the accused's attempt to commit the act, you would be found guilty. You could be charged with conspiring to commit a criminal attempt in this situation. However, a qualified defense attorney could be able to demonstrate that you just pretended to assist the offender or were pressured to support the offender as a result of a threat.

Is it Possible to be Prosecuted With Both the Attempted Crime and the Actual Crime?

No. If you did not succeed in your endeavor to execute the underlying offense, you can't be prosecuted for it. However, you risk facing further charges regarding the attempted offense. For instance, if you were discovered entering a bank with an unregistered pistol, you would be convicted of attempted bank robbery and illegal possession of a deadly weapon.

Can I Be Charged With Attempting to Commit a Crime if I Acquire All the Equipment for Making Marijuana Concentrate but Don't Have Any Marijuana?

Yes. However, a qualified defense attorney could be able to argue that having the apparatus to manufacture drugs is merely preparation and that there was no act or direct step in support of producing the drugs since you didn't have the active elements to make the medication.

Is it Possible to Expunge My Criminal Records After Conviction?

Yes. An attempted crime conviction can be expunged. If you complete probation or, if applicable, your sentence in county jail, you are eligible for an expungement. It's worth noting that if you were imprisoned in state prison, you won't be eligible for an expungement.

Does a Conviction Impair My Right to Own a Firearm?

The gravity of the crime determines the consequence. Your gun rights could be jeopardized if you are convicted of an attempted crime. You could lose your right to own and possess a gun if you commit certain crimes. If you attempt one of these offenses, your gun rights are likely to be stripped away. If, on the other hand, a targeted offense doesn't result in a loss of property or harm to the victim, then you could retain your right to own a firearm.

Finding a Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me

It's possible to be accused of an offense even though you did not commit it. Since attempted crime charges are so serious, hiring the right lawyer could make the difference between freedom and incarceration.

Our aggressive and competent attorneys at The LA Criminal Defense Law Firm can negotiate a reduction or discharge of the allegations against you. Our experts have handled high-profile criminal cases in and around Los Angeles, California. Call us at 310-935-1675 for a completely free and confidential consultation.