What is the test for making a threat under section 422 of the California Public Prosecutions Act?

Section 422, subdivision (a), requires that a threat be "so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat." (Italics added.) In regard to "immediate prospect," one appellate court, quoting another appellate court, wrote, " '[w]e understand the word "immediate" to mean that degree of seriousness and imminence which is understood by the victim to be attached to the future prospect of the threat being carried out.' " (People v. Wilson (2010) 186 Cal.App.4th 789, 807.) For the sake of judicial efficiency, rather than conduct an analysis of the statutory language, we rely on the foregoing caselaw for the proposition that section 422 applies to threats of future harm. We leave for another day the issue of whether the statute also encompasses menacing statements made in the midst of physical violence.