Most complex conspiracies can be categorized as either a chain or a wheel conspiracy.Attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy are inchoate crimes or offenses that punish the beginning steps toward a crime. All require a mens rea involving a specific intent or purpose to achieve a crime as well as an actus reus that entails an affirmative act toward the commission of a crime. Each of these offenses is subject to the same or a lesser penalty than the crime that is the criminal objective.

An attempt involves three elements:

• an intent or purpose to commit the crime,
• an act toward the commission of the crime, and
• a failure to commit the crime.
An attempt involves three elements:

• an intent or purpose to commit the crime,
• an act toward the commission of the crime, and
• a failure to commit the crime.

On August 29, 1991, Dwight Ralph Smallwood was diagnosed as being infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)…. On September 26, 1993, Smallwood and an accomplice robbed a woman at gunpoint and forced her into a grove of trees where each man alternately placed a gun to her head while the other one raped her. On September 28, 1993, Smallwood and an accomplice robbed a second woman at gunpoint and took her to a secluded location, where Smallwood inserted his penis into her with “slight penetration.” On September 30, 1993, Smallwood and an accomplice robbed yet a third woman, also at gunpoint, and took her to a local school where she was forced to perform oral sex on Smallwood and was raped by him. In each of these episodes, Smallwood threatened to kill his victims if they did not cooperate or to return and shoot them if they reported his crimes. Smallwood did not wear a condom during any of these criminal episodes…. Based upon his attack on September 28, 1993, Smallwood was charged with, among other crimes, … attempted second-degree murder of each of his three victims.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the mens rea of criminal attempts.
2. Know the legal tests for the actus reus of criminal attempts.
3. Summarize the law of factual impossibility and the law of legal impossibility.
4. Define and give examples of the defense of abandonment.
5. State the actus reus and mens rea of a