California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Scroggins, D061289 (Cal. App. 2013):
To be guilty of committing a forcible lewd act on a child, a defendant must have (1) used force, (2) to willfully touch any part of the body of a child under 14 years old, (3) with sexual intent. ( 288, subd. (b)(1); CALCRIM No. 1111.) To be guilty of attempting to commit a forcible lewd act on a child, the defendant must have (1) intended to commit the crime and (2) taken a direct, but ineffective step toward doing so. ( 21a; People v. Davis (2009) 46 Cal.4th 539, 606; CALCRIM No. 460.) Because the crime of committing a forcible lewd act on a child requires a willful act committed with a specific mental state, it is a specific intent crime and the jury was so instructed under CALCRIM No. 252. Thus, to convict Scroggins of this crime, the jury necessarily had to find he intended to commit the crime. Accordingly, attempting to commit the crime is a necessarily included offense and we may and do exercise our discretion under section
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1260 to reduce the conviction in count 1 to attempted commission of a lewd act on a child.
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