Inchoate crimes

Question 1

Attempt: requirements

Answer 1

Attempt is a specific-intent crime even when the completed offense is only a general-intent crime.

(1) Specific intent to commit a particular criminal act; and
(2) A substantial step toward perpetrating the crime.

Question 2

Attempt: specific-intent crime defenses

Answer 2

Defenses for specific-intent crimes can be used as a defense to attempt, e.g., a defendant cannot be charged with attempting a depraved heart murder if her actions with a depraved heart did not constitute specific intent to commit murder.

Question 3

Attempt: other defenses

Answer 3

Defenses such as voluntary intoxication or unreasonable mistake of fact are available even if they would not have been had the crime been completed.

Question 4

Merger: attempt

Answer 4

Attempt merges into a completed offense, whereas with conspiracy, a defendant can be convicted of both the inchoate and completed crime.

Question 5

Solicitation

Answer 5

Solicitation is the:

(i) enticing, encouraging, requesting, or commanding of another person
(ii) to commit a crime
(iii) with the intent that the other person commits the crime.

If the other person agrees, the crime is conspiracy, and if the other person commits the offense, the crimes are both conspiracy to commit the crime and the crime itself.

Question 6

Attempt: abandonment

Answer 6

At common law, once the defendant has taken a substantial step toward the commission of the offense, the defendant may not legally abandon the attempt to commit the crime because of a change of heart.

Upon the completion of a substantial step, the crime of attempt is completed; there can be no abandonment or withdrawal.

Question 7

Attempt: voluntary withdrawal

Answer 7

Even in a jurisdiction that recognizes abandonment or withdrawal as a defense to attempt, abandonment must be voluntary.

Abandonment is involuntary if it was motivated by a desire to avoid detection, e.g., by a security guard.

Question 8

Merger: solicitation

Answer 8

The crime of solicitation “merges” into the completed crime, i.e., the solicitor cannot be convicted of both solicitation and the crime solicited.

Question 9

Merger: Model Penal Code

Answer 9

Under the Model Penal Code, a defendant may be concurrently prosecuted for, but not convicted of, more than one inchoate offense—i.e., solicitation, conspiracy, and attempt—based on conduct designed to culminate in the commission of the same crime.

Question 10

Solicitation: renunciation

Answer 10

Under the Model Penal Code, voluntary renunciation may be a defense, provided the defendant thwarts the commission of the solicited crime.