What's Wrong With Attempted Murder?

[Pyrodrew]

Should the law really punish attempted crimes? If I create what I think is a poisonous drink and give it to you, but in fact it is harmless, did I attempt to murder you?

So you're saying you think the 4 London terrorists who failed with their bomb attempts should be at most arrested for only public disturbance or some minor crime... since they might have known it would fail and were just doing a prank?

Is this thread just a troll?

[Wiglaf]

Their attacks had a very high probability of success. I am trying to see if there is some sort of standard for intent.

[Theben]

9/10

So what have you been charged with?

[JohnT]

Being a maroon?

[Theben]

****, that's gone well beyond 'attempted'.

[JohnT]

True.

[SlowwHand]

There's a couple of points to make here.
1) The "attempt" suggests a failure.
2) Since when are people rewarded for failing?

[Ecthy]

Attempted murder can be repeated and eventually successful if not punished.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
When there's no harm, what the hell could the intent be? To test someone's defenses?

You fire a gun at me fully wishing to kill me. You miss. I come to absolutely no harm but you should be charged with attempted murder.



Second case-- you think you want to kill me. You buy a gun, load it and bring it to where I will be. But you never pull it out or fire it. No crime at all unless there are concealed weapon laws or you bought it illegally

[Winston]

Ask for a cup of coffee, then secretly set the video player in reverse. It will seem like Imran is the one hurling a bomb at you. After you've been polite enough to deliver it by hand at his house.

And of course, always remember to walk away backwards from surveillance cameras.

[rah]

How about contracting for a killer and the contract killer is an FBI agent running a sting operation? Your intent is to kill but it's never going to happen.

[JohnT]

nm

[Flubber]

Originally posted by rah
How about contracting for a killer and the contract killer is an FBI agent running a sting operation? Your intent is to kill but it's never going to happen.

Again attempted murder-- Its the same as if I pull the trigger on a defective gun but I don't know its defective. I intend to put actions in motion that will result in someones death and I initiate such actions. The fact that some intervening fact means the attempt is doomed to failure is irrelevant.

and I dispute the assertion that you can't "prove intent". Courts assess intent all the time

[MrFun]

Originally posted by JohnT
Being a maroon?

You win the prize for the correct answer.

[JohnT]

Naw, The Ben noted that we're talking about attempted crimes, not crimes that are wantonly successful.