ProfessorScott Caron
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Brief Fact Summary. Defendant was convicted of attempted robbery. However, at the time he was arrested, he never found the targeted individual he wanted to rob.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Only the acts so near the accomplishment of a crime that in all reasonable probability the crime itself would have been committed but for timely interference.
Issue. Whether the actions of Defendant constitute the crime of attempted robbery.
Held. The conviction must be reversed and a new trial granted.
For the crime of attempt, the law will consider those acts only as tending to the commission of the crime, which are so near to its accomplishment that in all reasonable probability the crime itself would have been committed but for timely interference.
Here, Defendant had planned to commit a crime and was looking for an opportunity to commit it, but the opportunity never came.
The Court of Appeals has written that, in demarcating punishable attempts from mere preparation to commit a crime, a line has been drawn between those acts which are remote and those which are proximate and near to the consummation.
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