California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Vazquez, E067850 (Cal. App. 2018):
"'To constitute a criminal threat, a communication need not be absolutely unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific. The statute includes the qualifier "so" unequivocal, etc., which establishes that the test is whether, in light of the surrounding circumstances, the communication was sufficiently unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the victim a gravity of purpose and immediate prospect of execution.'" (People v. Hamlin (2009) 170 Cal.App.4th 1412, 1433.) All the surrounding circumstances, and not just the words alone, can establish that a threat was sufficiently unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific. A jury is thus "'free to interpret the words spoken from all of the surrounding circumstances of the
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case,'" such that even an ambiguous statement can satisfy section 422. (People v. Hamlin, supra, at p. 1433.)
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