State v. Mitchell

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State v. Mitchell, 170 Mo. 633, 71 S.W. 175 (1902), is a

prosecution of failed attempts to commit a crime. In United States law, cases involving failed criminal attempts can bring up interesting legal issues of whether the crime was unsuccessful due to factual impossibility or to legal impossibility.[1]

Background

Mistakes of fact have rarely been an adequate defense at common law. In the United States, 37 states have ruled out mistake of fact as a defense to charges of attempt.[2] Mistakes of law have proved a more successful defense.

Mistakes of fact

A "factual" impossibility occurs when, at the time of the attempt, the facts make the intended crime impossible to commit, even though the

United States Court of Military Appeals held that men who believed they were raping a drunken, unconscious woman were guilty of attempted rape, even though the woman was actually dead at the time the sexual intercourse took place.[1][4]

Mistakes of law

An act that is considered legally impossible to commit is traditionally considered a valid defense for a person prosecuted for a criminal attempt. An attempt is considered to be a "legal" impossibility when the defendant has completed all of his intended acts, but those acts fail to fulfill all the required common law elements of a crime. Mistake of law has proved a successful defense. An example of a legally failed attempt is a person who shoots a tree stump; that person can not be prosecuted for attempted murder as there is no manifest intent to kill by shooting a stump. The underlying rationale is that attempting to do what is not a crime is not attempting to commit a crime.[5]

However, "legal" and "factual" mistakes are not mutually exclusive. A borderline case is that of a person who shot a stuffed deer, thinking it was alive. That person was originally convicted for attempting to kill a protected animal out of season, but in a debatable reversal, an appellate judge threw out the conviction on the basis that it is no crime to shoot a stuffed deer out of season.[1][3]

Facts of the case

In Mitchell, the defendant

intending to murder the victim. One bullet struck the victim's usual pillow. But the defendant did not know that the victim was sleeping elsewhere that particular night. Using these circumstances (that the bed was empty), the defendant pleaded not guilty on the grounds that the intended crime was factually impossible to commit, as there was no victim in the room into which he fired.[1]

At trial, the defendant was found guilty of attempted murder. The fact that the intended crime was impossible for the defendant to commit was not considered a defense for the charge of attempting to commit a felony, in this case murder.[6]

The defendant then appealed his judgment of conviction and sentence.

Decision

On appeal, the Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed Mitchell's conviction and sentence, holding that the objective itself was criminal in nature and only a circumstance unknown to the defendant prevented its completion. The court held that a person who shoots into the bed of another person on purpose, believing that person to be in the bed, is guilty of attempted murder.[7] The court ruled that "when the consequences sought by a defendant are forbidden by law as criminal, it is not defense that the defendant could not succeed in reaching his goal because of circumstances unknown to him."[1]

Significance

This case is part of a body of law developed in the

Supreme Court of New Mexico
upheld the conviction:

...when the consequences sought by a defendant are forbidden by the law as criminal, it is no defense that the defendant could not succeed in reaching his goal because of circumstances unknown to him.[1]

With few exceptions, all cases in which an attempt to commit a felony was impossible to carry out because the defendant was mistaken in fact have been categorized as factually impossible and the conviction was upheld on appeal.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Richard M. Bonnie, Anne M. Coughlin, John C. Jefferies, Jr. & Peter W. Low (1997). Criminal Law. Westbury, NY: The Foundation Press. p. 251.
    ISBN 1-56662-448-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  2. ^ a b John Hasnas (2002). "Once More unto the Breach:The Inherent Liberalism of the Criminal Law and Liability for Attempting the Impossible" (PDF). George Mason University School of Law - Hastings Law Journal. p. 13. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-513695-1
    . Retrieved January 9, 2008.
  4. ^ "Criminal Law & Criminal Procedure Case Briefs - United States v. Thomas - Court of Military Appeals, 1962". Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  5. ^ "Attempt -Impossiblity Unavailable as a Defense". Oklahoma Jury Instructions. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  6. ISBN 0-8039-2669-3
    .
  7. ISBN 9780834210837
    . Retrieved January 9, 2008.

External links
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