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My AccountChapter 15
- 15.1 General Comments on Criminal Attempt
- 15.2 Formulating the Elements of Attempt
- 15.3 Criteria for Determining Whether Defendant Went Far Enough
- 15.4 Impossibility
- 15.5 Defining Specific Intent to Commit Partially Strict Liability Offenses
- 15.6 Renunciation Defense to Guilt
- 15.7 Punishment Mitigation by Quasi-Renunciation
- 15.8 Instruction—Attempted Murder
- 15.9 Instruction—Attempted Murder—Affirmative Defense of Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(a))
- 15.10 Instruction—Attempted Murder—Punishment Mitigation by Quasi-Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(d))
- 15.11 Instruction—Attempted Burglary of a Building
- 15.12 Instruction—Attempted Burglary of a Building—Affirmative Defense of Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(a))
- 15.13 Instruction—Attempted Burglary of a Building—Punishment Mitigation by Quasi-Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(d))
- 15.14 Conspiracy Generally
- 15.15 Instruction—Liability for Conspiracy
- 15.16 Instruction—Liability for Conspiracy—Affirmative Defense of Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(b))
- 15.17 Instruction—Liability for Conspiracy—Punishment Mitigation by Quasi-Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(d))
- 15.18 Criminal Solicitation Generally
- 15.19 Instruction—Criminal Solicitation—Solicitation of Another to Personally Commit Offense
- 15.20 Comment on Solicitation of Another to Induce Someone Else to Commit Offense
- 15.21 Instruction—Criminal Solicitation—Solicitation of Another to Induce Third Party to Commit Offense
- 15.22 Instruction—Criminal Solicitation—Affirmative Defense of Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(b))
- 15.23 Instruction—Criminal Solicitation—Punishment Mitigation by Quasi-Renunciation (Texas Penal Code Section 15.04(d))
Comment
The Committee was split on how to formulate the elements of attempt. Some members favored separating the requirements that the act (1) “amount[] to more than mere preparation” to commit the offense intended, and (2) “tend[] . . . to effect the commission of the offense intended.” These Committee members believed that such separation would appropriately emphasize what the legislature intended as distinctly different requirements. They reasoned that the requirement that the act “tend[] . . . to effect the commission of the offense intended”—however imprecise it may be—was intended by the legislature to be substantively distinguishable from the requirement that the act “amount[] to more than mere preparation.” See Tex. Penal Code § 15.01(a).
A majority of the Committee, however, saw the two demands as closely related and best presented to juries as a single, albeit two-part, element of attempt. This was done in the Committee’s instructions.