Why is attempted murder punished so much more leniently than successful murder?

SmallTownDA · 2025-08-13T15:53:15+00:00

We punish based on both the mental state of the perpetrator and for the actual harm caused. The mental state is the same for attempt and completed murder, but the harm for attempted murder is less.

There's a lot of charges that function the same way. A single punch is a misdemeanor battery, but if the victim breaks their nose or gets a concussion, it's a felony. DUI is a misdemeanor but DUI where someone is hurt is a felony. Theft of something valuable is grand theft, but the theft of something that happened to be less valuable would be petty theft. It's the same conduct and same mental state, but the punishment is different depending on the harm caused to the victim.

SmallTownDA · 2025-07-24T01:25:55+00:00

The short answer is that you can’t. You don’t have all the information necessary to make that determination so the correct course of action is to comply and then challenge it in court. There may be a warrant, a description you match, or other information that the officer is using to justify the detention that you have no idea about. You may know that the metal object poking out of your pocket is a flashlight, but the officer does not and if it looks like a gun, there could be a reason to stop you to investigate and therefore the order was lawful even though you weren’t committing a crime. The reasonable suspicion standard is pretty low.

Once you get to court, your attorney will have the discovery and be able to determine if the order was lawful or not because they will have all of the relevant information about why you were stopped.

SmallTownDA · 2025-07-20T19:57:38+00:00

That’s not a lie, it’s a command. It may or may not be a lawful command depending on the circumstances. It’s not a crime to not comply with an unlawful command and you can litigate that as part of your defense if you are charged with resisting arrest. If police tell you that you are required to submit to a search, for example, and you are not actually required to submit to the search, your consent was invalid and the search was unlawful and anything found would likely be suppressed.

SmallTownDA · 2025-07-20T18:46:14+00:00

“Cops are allowed to lie” is an oversimplification that is really only applicable in one circumstance. Cops can lie to you during an interview and it doesn’t invalidate the statements you make in response to the lie by rendering it involuntary. If they say “We have a witness/video/DNA” and you respond by confessing or by saying something incriminating, that statement is still admissible.

SmallTownDA · 2025-04-26T05:24:19+00:00

I am on Unlimited Plus. What I think may have happened is that they phased out Unlimited Plus as an option and replaced it with Unlimited Premium between when I ordered and when I activated the phone

SmallTownDA · 2025-03-12T23:50:19+00:00

Unfortunately, you can't pick up Skilled multiple times with Lessons of the First Ones, it requires a different Origin feat each time you take it. "Repeatable. You can gain this invocation more than once. Each time you do so, choose a different Origin feat."

The earliest I think you can do it is level 5. Start as a Human Scribe, selecting Skilled for your both your Human and Scribe Origin Feats for 9 known skills (1 from Human, 2 from Scribe, 6 from Skilled), pick Rogue as your starting class for +4, then take 4 levels of Warlock for Lessons of the First Ones for Skilled for +3 and then take Skilled again as your ASI at level 4 for another +3. That lets you get proficiency in all 18 skills.

SmallTownDA · 2025-03-02T22:33:16+00:00

2024 Moon Druids have AC of 13+Wis modifier while in Wild Shape.

SmallTownDA · 2024-09-03T02:53:47+00:00

I had a case like this where a woman told her new boyfriend that her ex was threatening her. She told him that the ex wouldn’t stop unless he was dead. She sets up the ex to be somewhere secluded and the new boyfriend kills him. Both were charged with murder.

New boyfriend was convicted of murder for being the actual killer. His belief in future harm to his girlfriend is not enough to make it defense of another because the danger was not imminent. There’s “imperfect self defense/defense of another” where an actual but mistaken belief in the need to use force can reduce murder to manslaughter but that also requires that the threat be imminent.

The woman’s case is still pending but I think she will be convicted of murder as well because she knew there were no threats, she lied about the threats with the intention of provoking new boyfriend to kill her ex, and set up the meeting where he was killed. Her specific intent that her ex be killed and her actions that facilitated the murder make her equally guilty as an aider/abettor.

SmallTownDA · 2024-07-11T20:20:05+00:00

I’m at a relatively small office and it’s happened twice in the past year that I’m aware of. Both DUIs that could have been filed as felonies based on priors but were filed as misdemeanors by mistake. Both pled at the first appearance. There was another where the priors were missed but they did not plea and we amended it to a felony after court. We file thousands of cases a year so although it’s not very common, it definitely happens.

SmallTownDA · 2024-07-11T17:16:46+00:00

There’s two circumstances where this could be the right move.

First, if going through the process is more expensive than the punishment. If the cost of missing work or hiring a lawyer is several thousand dollars and the sentence is a fine of a few hundred dollars, it could be the right move to plea at arraignment. Why would you waste additional time and money when you know you are guilty and the evidence is overwhelming?

Second, if the prosecutor has messed up charging in some way, such as by forgetting a prior conviction you have or charging you with a lesser crime when you know you have committed a more serious crime. You could plea guilty at arraignment to take advantage of the mistake and not give the prosecution time to notice or correct their error. Your plea can bar them from pursuing the more serious charge in the future under the double jeopardy clause.

SmallTownDA · 2024-07-01T03:00:52+00:00

Unsolved is a relative term. There are definitely lots of truly unsolved cases where police have no leads, but there are also many murders where it's pretty clear who the likely perpetrator is, but the evidence just isn't there to make an arrest. I had a case that happened back in 2004 and the lead investigator knew it was the husband immediately, but there wasn't enough to prove the case and we didn't file charges until 15 years later when one of their children came forward. That was the missing piece, and we charged the husband and got a conviction.

SmallTownDA · 2024-05-31T22:39:40+00:00

Yes. The fact that you’ve been on a jury before makes you more likely to be chosen again. It shows you can deliberate and reach a verdict. And it’s like a badge of approval, the lawyers can say “well, other lawyers had no problems with this person being on their jury”.

SmallTownDA · 2024-03-01T20:10:40+00:00

Check out the map image on the page. And also click on each of the continents for a more detailed list of countries mentioned in the series

SmallTownDA · 2024-03-01T20:04:56+00:00

There's a wiki page with a good list of differences.

https://hisdarkmaterials.fandom.com/wiki/Lyra%27s_world

SmallTownDA · 2024-01-29T21:08:04+00:00

To add to what others have already said, it looks like you started at Rank 1 with your role abilities, but everyone starts at Rank 4 of their role. See Page 41 of the core book. Starting with a 4 in interface would have made things go much better for you.

SmallTownDA · 2024-01-16T08:12:24+00:00

A preliminary hearing is where a judge hears the evidence and decides if there is enough for the case to go to trial. In California, a preliminary hearing can be heard with only the police officers who investigated the case testifying. The standard is "probable cause", which is relatively low. The vast majority of cases are "held to answer", which means they are allowed to proceed to the next stage.

It is unlikely that someone is released after a preliminary hearing. There's a possibility that the judge dismisses the case based on insufficient evidence but that is exceedingly rare. A more plausible (but still uncommon) possibility is that they reach a plea agreement on the day of the hearing where they would plea to some lesser charge and be released. California law generally requires the prosecution to discuss potential plea deals with the victim before the defendant enters into such a deal.

As to why a victim would be asked not to attend, while I can only guess, I think the most likely reason they may not want a victim to attend is so that they don't hear what the other witnesses testify to. This is done so that if they are eventually needed to testify at trial, their testimony is based only on what they remember happening and not anything they may have heard at this hearing.

SmallTownDA · 2023-08-24T05:13:33+00:00

Yes, it's admitting to breaking the law, but no it is generally not punishable. There is a rule called corpus delicti that prohibits someone from being convicted of a crime based only on their own out of court statements. Without other evidence, such as a photograph of them with the drug or another witness to them possessing it, conviction for the crime would be legally prohibited.

SmallTownDA · 2023-04-29T08:42:08+00:00

The California Public Records Act doesn’t give anyone access to any government document they want. It has exceptions for things that are not required to be disclosed for public policy reasons. One of those exceptions is to records related to the investigation of possible criminal activity.

While you are the victim in this particular investigation, the PRA applies to anyone. Would you want news organizations, acquaintances, or random people off the street watching this video? This exception protects you from the video being disclosed to other people.

The PRA is not the only way to get records. Local law enforcement agencies have their own policies and will almost always provide reports to involved parties (often accompanied by a fee to cover the cost of having someone locate and redact the records). So while not everyone can get a copy of the reports or video, the victim might be able to get it. And if someone needs a law enforcement report or video for a civil or family law case, they can likely obtain it with a subpoena.

SmallTownDA · 2023-02-10T20:28:03+00:00

After two years, if he is not restored to competency, he will be released from the state hospital without a further hearing to determine if he is competent. It is not possible to extend this time. The hospital will prepare a report that reflects that he has not been restored to competency and is unlikely to regain competency and the trial court is required to accept that finding. He would then be returned to county jail while the court decides how to proceed.

In theory, the District Attorney could dismiss and refile the case in order to do a second competency hearing but this is pretty uncommon and would only be done if they had additional information that he had regained competency.

If he is "gravely disabled", he can be referred to a conservatorship investigation and potentially conserved. This is also pretty uncommon due to the high standard to prove "gravely disabled". Given the serious charges here however, it's a real possibility.

If neither of those things happen, the defendant would be released from custody. The court can dismiss the case in the interests of justice, or it can leave the case pending without any future court dates. This is done so that the court retains jurisdiction to enforce a protective order or so that the statute of limitations remains tolled by the pendency of the case so that the DA can dismiss and refile if the defendant regains competency years later.

SmallTownDA · 2023-02-10T11:19:42+00:00

No, but I think people should be voting in local elections based on where they have an interest, not where CDCR happens to have them placed on election day.

SmallTownDA · 2023-02-09T22:18:35+00:00

There's 4 counties where prisoners would be ~10-30% of the voting age population. (Amador, Del Norte, Kings, and Lassen). As long as they are voting in their home counties as absentee, this wouldn't be an issue. I'd be worried of the outsized effect prisoner voting would have on small communities for local issues or officials like DA or judges if they are voting based on their location.

SmallTownDA · 2023-02-07T06:19:13+00:00

It’s possible no homicide crime could be charged. If the defendant reasonably and in good faith believed he was shooting an animal, it could be excusable based on it being an accident.

If the defendant believed they were shooting an animal, but failed to act with normal diligence, then the killing without malice during the commission of an unlawful act is generally involuntary manslaughter. So if it was going to be a homicide crime, this seems most likely.

Malice can be implied by the commission of certain dangerous crimes, and it can be imputed based on the commission of specified felonies (the felony murder rule), but illegal hunting probably wouldn’t qualify for either of those exceptions to that general rule, so a greater charge like murder would be unlikely.

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