Can a defendant be found guilty of an attempted criminal threat?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. France, A145537 (Cal. App. 2016):

"[A] defendant properly may be found guilty of attempted criminal threat whenever, acting with the specific intent to commit the offense of criminal threat, the defendant performs an act that goes beyond mere preparation and indicates that he or she is putting a plan into action. . . . [] A variety of potential circumstances fall within the reach of the offense of attempted criminal threat. For example, . . . . if a defendant, again acting with the requisite intent, makes a sufficient threat that is received and understood by the threatened person, but, for whatever reason, the threat does not actually cause the threatened person to be in sustained fear for his or her safety even though, under the circumstances, that person reasonably could have been placed in such fear, the defendant properly may be found to have committed the offense of attempted criminal threat. In [this] situation[], only a fortuity, not intended by the defendant, has prevented the defendant from perpetrating the completed offense of criminal threat itself." (People v. Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at pp. 230-231, italics omitted.)

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