Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

attempted murder

back to the same question, what if

the aggressor did not recieve life

threatening wounds??? and the

other received maiming wounds ????

Where's the justice here


Asked on 2/22/08, 4:07 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: attempted murder

[For the benefit of other users, the question refers to a previous one which can be found at http://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/mesg.cgi?i=106372758.]

A charge of attempted murder does not require life threatening wounds. In fact, it doesn't require any wounds at all. If I unjustifiably try to kill you with a gun and I miss, I'm guilty of attempted murder even though you didn't get a scratch.

That the target ended up with serious injuries does not settle the matter. If the attacker originally was not trying to seriously injure him but then escalated his level of force in order to defend himself against the unreasonable force the target was using in self-defense then his actions were justified. He could still be charged for the original attack, but if it was going to be relatively minor prosecutors likely wouldn't bother.

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Answered on 2/22/08, 4:33 pm


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