Attempting a Crime Is as Bad as Committing One
Video Transcribed: Hi, this is Stuart Ericson, Wagoner attorney, talking about the attempt, the crime of attempt. Attempted robbery, attempted anything, you name the crime.
It still is a specific intent crime, so you would have to have a specific intent to commit a crime. The next element would be you have to perform some act towards committing that crime. You can’t just be thinking about a crime, you have to perform some action toward it. But in attempt charges, there’s a failure for some reason. The acts didn’t fully equate to committing the full crime. Something happened, it failed for some reason. But, there still is a crime of attempt.
Interestingly, there are examples in history of how this started. It started in England in 1784. That’s where this attempt thought of being a crime started. In that case, the defendant was a tenant in some sort of boarding house. Of course, in 1784, no electricity had a lighted candle, and some combustible material, and was going to set this house on fire. Did light the candle, but for whatever reason, it never caught. It failed. Back in the day, that would’ve been not a crime. There’s no arson because even though the person had the intent to commit the crime, lit the candle, had the material, and tried to do it, it failed. Traditionally that would’ve been no crime because the fully committed crime would’ve been arson. But in this case, of course, it failed.
The courts, in that case, said, “Well, that still should be a crime, because you had the criminal intent, you took steps toward it. Only because it didn’t light did you not commit a criminal act.” This kind of crime was created. Now, it was common law. Some of our statutes have very specific attempted crimes right there in the statute. Others do not really list attempted crime, there’s just a general attempt statute that can be used. It is used, and a completed act isn’t necessary. It’s just, “Hey, I do intend to commit a crime. I’ve done these things,” and then there’s just some sort of failure. I was stopped or something failed. That’s basically what the attempt to charge is.
If you ever get charged with an attempt or attempted crime, reach out to me, an Oklahoma criminal defense lawyer, at stuartericson@wagonerlawyer.com with any more questions.
