Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the crime wave

Re:Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the ... by gnicholas on Thursday July 21, 2022 @02:15AM (#32176335)

> He was charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon—despite not actually attacking anyone with the pocketknife

Perhaps he should have been charged with attempted armed robbery (IIRC from law school the punishment for attempt crimes is the same), but overall these charges sound right.

In general, there are two kinds of assault: putting someone in reasonable fear of imminent unlawful battery, or attempted battery (even if you miss). This would have been the former.

There may be specifics of the relevant statutes (in whatever jurisdiction) that made one of these charges inappropriate, but the reporter doesn't give any indication this is the case.

Does anyone else (who works in criminal law, or at least remembers crimlaw better than I do) have ideas on the appropriateness of the charges?

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Re:Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the ... by GravitasFailure on Thursday July 21, 2022 @03:18AM (#32176670)

"Assault" seems correct here. Broadly speaking, charges for threatening someone with a knife and then screaming you'll beat them up will usually be some flavor of "assault," be it aggravated, attempted, or whatever the exact term the relevant statute uses. The "despite not attacking anyone" is a weird framing because stealing with a threat of injury tends to be treated as a pretty serious violent crime even without actually causing an injury.

Source: Way too much time as a rent-a-cop. Even dealt with a couple instances of armed shoplifting.

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Re:Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the ... by gnicholas on Thursday July 21, 2022 @03:24AM (#32176700)

Yeah the question that lingered for me is: what makes this aggravated assault, if "with a deadly weapon" is already appended to the charge? I would think that the involvement of a deadly weapon could be an aggravating circumstance, but it seems like double-counting to up the charge in two places based on the weapon.

But a quick google [1] shows that in NM, assault counts as aggravated if you're just holding a deadly weapon. So the reporting is just a bit sloppy — the charge itself doesn't reference "with a deadly weapon". It's just aggravated assault (because a deadly weapon was involved).

1: https://www.newmexicolegalgroup.com/criminal-defense/new-mex...

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Re:Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the ... by GravitasFailure on Thursday July 21, 2022 @03:27AM (#32176717)

I love states that have these kinds of clear explanations of their laws.

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Re:Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the ... by dmurray on Thursday July 21, 2022 @06:10AM (#32177532)

This explanation isn't coming from the state. It's written and published by a for-profit law firm to attract business, in the same way a tech company might have a blog with beginner tutorials on tech topics.

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Re:Shutdown of the court system as a possible factor in the ... by bagels on Thursday July 21, 2022 @02:44AM (#32176493)

Aggravated assault seems appropriate.

The layman's understanding of assault is probably closer to battery.

Assault is threatening violence, aggravated can be when done in conjunction with a weapon.

Not a lawyer. Some states define these terms differently.

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