The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 9: At Least You Tried
Attempt pg 24: Mistake Isn’t Impossibility
And Frack over here is a drug dealer. He bought a truckload of kilos from a new supplier who turned out to be a cop.
Actually, he bought a truckload of talcum powder instead of cocaine.
Man signaling an 18-wheeler to “‘mon back!”
Though it was impossible for him to have bought cocaine in this situation—it was only ever going to be talc—Frack is still going to be guilty of attempted possession of cocaine.
What he was trying to do was illegal, and only impossible due to his own mistake as to the facts of the situation. He’s still “dangerous,” and so he’s still guilty of attempt.
Frack = ‘dangerous’? though i suppose it’s in scare quotes.
Why on earth are they called “scare” quotes? Writers use them to say “so-called” or “so to speak” — not to say “boo!”
That is however what they are called. I know of no other name for them.
Yeah… but why?
I think it’s because they imply the person using them is, well, scared to actually claim the word or phrase is true, so there’s sort of an implication of “I think so/somebody says so, but I could be wrong. Don’t hurt me.”
I have never heard them called scare quotes; but I didn’t have a name for the concept either.
By total coincidence, I heard that name for the first time earlier today elsewhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quotes
Late to the party, but hey.
I guess this one I’m really having a problem with. Why, if buying talc-cocaine is still illegal (the mistake in fact being the cocaine being talc instead of cocaine), is the voodoo-guy not in trouble (the mistake in fact being that voodoo is bunk instead of voodoo being legitimate)?
The short answer is that the voodoo example wasn’t about mistake. Joe the voodoo guy couldn’t have been charged with KILLING Simon, because his act did not cause Simon’s death. His example was all about actus reus. But he did sincerely attempt to commit the crime.
But Joe is distinguishable here, as well. Frack could have succeeded, had he not been stymied by the cops. Joe never could have succeeded. His attempt wasn’t merely impossible due to happenstance, but because the universe doesn’t work that way.
In most jurisdictions, there’s no way he could be punished for attempt, because he never got close to succeeding. In an “any overt act” kind of jurisdiction, the prosecutor might have more discretion to charge him, though it’d probably still be laughed out of court.