Criminal Defense for Criminal Threats Cases This offense is a “strike” under California’s Three Strikes Law that can be used to enhance the penalties on future convictions. A conviction for felony criminal threats can be punished by up to three years in prison with an additional year added if the defendant used a deadly or dangerous weapon in making the threat. Making Criminal threats is a “wobbler” offense that can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on the defendant’s criminal history and the factual circumstances surrounding the offense. In these cases, the defendant would have a valid defense if charged with this offense.
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Domestic Violence – California Penal Code Section 243(e)(1) PCĪ person is not guilty of criminal threats where the threat is not immediate, the threat is overly vague or ambiguous, the threat does not make the victim afraid, the threat does not cause reasonable fear or if the threat was not communicated orally, in writing or via electronic communications.
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Brandishing a Weapon or Firearm - California Penal Code Section 417 PC.Other similar or related offenses include: This young man could not be prosecuted for criminal threats, unless the threats made in the poem were unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific. The poems reference coming to school with guns and shooting his tormenters. In another example, a young man in high school submits poetry to his English teacher for an assignment. As long as the fear experienced by the group was actual, sustained and reasonable, the man could be found guilty of making criminal threats. The man could be prosecuted for criminal threats, even though he lacked the ability to shoot anyone and even though his threat was conditional on the group complying with his demands. The group thinks the gun is real and run away. He pulls a fake gun out of his pocket, points it at the group, and threatens to shoot anyone who does not leave immediately. ExamplesĪ man walks up to a group of unfamiliar young men he sees in his neighborhood. An immediate ability to carry out the threat is not required. Someone who intends that a statement be understood as a threat does not have to actually intend to carry out the threatened act, or intend to have someone else do it. AND the other person’s fear was reasonable under the circumstances.
The threat actually caused the other person to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for the safety of his or her immediate family.serious intention and the immediate prospect that the threat would be carried out.The threat was so clear, immediate, unconditional, and specific that it communicated to the other person a.The defendant intended that his or her statement be understood as a threat.The defendant made the threat orally, in writing or via electronic communication.The defendant willfully threatened to unlawfully kill or unlawfully cause great bodily injury to another person.To prove that someone is guilty of making criminal threats, a prosecutor must be able to establish the following elements: This offense was previously called “terrorist threats,” however it can involve any threats of violence or harm. Under California Penal Code Section 422 PC, it is illegal to make criminal threats. Constitution, this right does not include the right to threaten other people with violence and put them in fear for their safety. While people are afforded broad freedom of speech rights under the First Amendment to the U.S.
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