What is the test for an attempted murder?

Attempted murder requires proof of a direct but ineffectual act done towards killing another human being and the specific intent to unlawfully kill another human being. (People v. Herrera (1999) 70 Cal.App.4th 1456, 1467, overruled in part on other grounds in People v. Mesa (2012) 54 Cal.4th 191, 199.) Attempted murder requires the specific intent to kill. (People v. Smith (2005) 37 Cal.4th 733, 739.)

"Malice" aforethought meanwhile, can be express or implied: It is express when the defendant manifests "a deliberate intention to unlawfully take away the life of a fellow creature" ( 188); it is implied when "'"the killing proximately resulted from an act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to life, which act was deliberately performed by a person who knows that his conduct endangers the life of another and who acts with conscious disregard for life."'" (People v. Dellinger (1989) 49 Cal.3d 1212, 1218.)