Case Title: People v. Chandler

Citation: 

Docket Number: S207542

State: california

Court: California Supreme Court

Date: 2014-08-28T00:00:00Z

Document:
Filed 8/28/14 
 
 
 
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 
 
THE PEOPLE, 
) 
 
 
) 
 
Plaintiff and Respondent, 
) 
 
 
) 
S207542 
 
v. 
) 
 
 
) 
Ct.App. 4/2 E054154 
BEN CHANDLER, JR., 
) 
 
) 
Riverside County 
 
Defendant and Appellant. 
) 
Super. Ct. No. SWF027980 
 ___________________________________ ) 
 
Penal Code section 422, subdivision (a) prohibits ―willfully threaten[ing] to 
commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, 
with the specific intent that the statement . . . is to be taken as a threat . . . which, on 
its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, 
unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a 
gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and 
thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own 
safety or for his or her immediate family‘s safety.‖  We granted review to determine 
whether a defendant who utters words to a victim with a subjective intent to 
threaten may be convicted of an attempt to violate Penal Code section 422 without 
proof that the intended threat under the circumstances was sufficient to cause a 
reasonable person to be in sustained fear.  For the reasons below, we hold that the 
crime of attempted criminal threat requires not only proof of a subjective intent to 
2 
threaten but also proof that the intended threat under the circumstances was 
sufficient to cause a reasonable person to be in sustained fear. 
I.  
Defendant Ben Chandler, Jr., lived around the corner from Jamie Lopez.  
According to Lopez‘s testimony at trial, Chandler drove by Lopez in January of 
2009, called her a ―bitch,‖ and made comments indicating that he knew when she 
was alone.  Chandler‘s comments scared her.  The next day he drove by again and 
said to her, ― ‗fuck you bitch.‘ ‖  Around this time, Lopez also saw Chandler walk 
up and down the middle of the street using profanity and laughing at her.  In 
addition, Lopez observed ―weird‖ things happening at her house; she heard the 
sound of a tennis ball being bounced off her windows and a pipe thrown at the front 
door.  One day she saw a large quantity of nails spread in the street and on her 
driveway, with the word ―fuck‖ spray painted on the street. 
Lopez further testified that on January 29, 2009, she saw Chandler walking 
up the street holding ―an object,‖ saying, ― ‗Fuck you, bitch.  I‘m going to kill 
you.‘ ‖  Lopez was scared, and she asked a neighbor to take her children because 
the neighbor‘s house had an alarm.  Lopez spent the night at the home of another 
neighbor, Deborah Alva.  Lopez and Alva heard Chandler singing a song with lyrics 
that included the words ―somebody‘s watching me.‖  Lopez called the police.  The 
next day, Lopez was in her car with her two children and Alva‘s son, and Chandler 
approached the car and said words to the effect of ―I‘m going to kill you bitch.‖  
Lopez was frightened and drove away quickly.  She again called the police.  
Lopez testified that over time she called the police about seven times because 
of Chandler‘s actions.  After the incidents, Lopez locked the bedroom, and her 
family all slept in one room.  She also kept an ax and a bat by the windows, and she 
thought about buying a gun.  She bought a video camera and set it up every night 
3 
while she was sleeping.  As a result of these incidents, Lopez moved away after two 
or three months. 
Alva testified that she was also a victim of defendant‘s threats.  Alva had 
been friends with Chandler but later had a business dispute with him and claimed he 
owed her money.  On January 29, 2009, Alva heard a disturbance, walked outside, 
and saw Chandler walking up the street swinging a golf club back and forth.  
Chandler looked at her and said, ― ‗I‘m going to kill you, you fucking bitch.‘ ‖  
Alva yelled back, ―Bring it on,‖ because she didn‘t want Chandler to think that he 
was intimidating her.  She first testified that she was not afraid because she ―wasn‘t 
going to show him fear.‖  However, when asked if ―inside‖ she was afraid, she said, 
―Oh yeah.  I was afraid that he would do something to my car.‖  She also testified 
that she was afraid Chandler was ―capable of carrying out that threat‖ ―[b]ecause of 
the drugs.‖  Alva believed he was under the influence of drugs because of his 
―ranting and raving.‖  Alva‘s husband called the police.  Alva turned on the house 
lights, slept in the living room, and was unable to sleep for the entire weekend. 
Defendant testified in his own defense.  He said he had never seen Lopez 
before.  He denied placing any nails in the street or writing graffiti on the street.  He 
denied that he owed Alva money, although he acknowledged that he had a business 
relationship with her and that she thought he owed her money. 
In addition, defendant testified that on the evening of January 29, he was 
chipping golf balls in his back yard when he noticed a laser light on his chest.  He 
was alarmed because he had been shot at the week before.  Chandler thought the 
light was coming from Alva and a group of people gathered at the top of the street 
on which she lived.  He yelled, ― ‗Stop pointing that f‘ing thing at me,‘ ‖ and heard 
Alva and others laughing.  Chandler swung his golf club at a tree, then turned and 
went inside his house. 
4 
An amended information filed on June 3, 2011 charged defendant in count 
one with stalking Lopez (Pen. Code, § 646.9, subd. (a)) and in counts two and three 
with criminal threats against Lopez and Alva, respectively (id., § 422).  (All further 
statutory references are to the Penal Code.)  With respect to counts two and three, 
the trial court instructed the jury with the standard instruction on making a criminal 
threat, CALCRIM No. 1300, stating in pertinent part:  ―(1) The defendant willfully 
threatened to unlawfully kill or to unlawfully cause great bodily injury to Jamie 
Lopez, she‘s in count two, or Deborah Alva, count three; [¶] . . .  [¶] (3) The 
defendant intended that his statement be understood as a threat and intended that it 
be communicated to Jamie Lopez or Deborah Alva, and that‘s count two and then 
count three; [¶] (4) The threat was so clear, immediate, unconditional, and specific 
that it communicated to Jamie Lopez or Deborah Alva the serious intention and 
immediate prospect that the threat would be carried out; [¶] (5) The threat actually 
caused Jamie Lopez in count two or Deborah Alva in count three to be in sustained 
fear for her own safety or for the safety of her immediate family; and [¶] (6) Jamie 
Lopez, that‘s count two, Deborah Alva‘s that‘s count three, fear was reasonable 
under the circumstances.‖ 
The trial court also instructed the jury on lesser included crimes of attempt 
with the language of CALCRIM No. 460:  ―[T]he People must prove that, [¶] 
(1) the defendant took a direct but ineffective step towards committing stalking as 
to count one or criminal threats in counts two and three; and [¶] (2) the defendant 
intended to commit stalking, that‘s count one, or criminal threats, counts two and 
three.‖ 
On June 10, 2011, a jury found defendant not guilty on counts one through 
three and guilty on the lesser included crime of attempted criminal threat on counts 
two and three.  The jury could not reach a decision as to the lesser included offense 
on count one, and the court declared a mistrial.  In a bifurcated proceeding, the jury 
5 
also found true two ―strike‖ priors (§§ 667, subds. (b)–(i), 1170.12) and two prior 
serious felony conviction enhancements (§ 667, subd. (a)).  The trial court later 
struck one of the enhancements, and defendant was sentenced to 33 years to life in 
prison. 
On appeal, defendant argued that the trial court should have instructed the 
jury that the crime of attempted criminal threat requires a finding that the intended 
threat reasonably could have caused sustained fear under the circumstances, as the 
court held in People v. Jackson (2009) 178 Cal.App.4th 590, 599 (Jackson).  The 
Court of Appeal below rejected the reasoning of Jackson on the ground that nothing 
in the relevant statutes, this court‘s precedent, or the First Amendment to the United 
States Constitution requires an attempted criminal threat to include such a 
reasonableness element.  The Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions and, after 
correcting a sentencing error, reduced the sentence to 30 years eight months to life 
in prison. 
In light of the conflict between Jackson and the opinion below, we granted 
review. 
II. 
In People v. Toledo (2001) 26 Cal.4th 221 (Toledo), we held that the law of 
criminal attempt applies to the offense of criminal threat, so that ―under California 
law, there is a crime of attempted criminal threat.‖  (Id. at p. 224.)  Toledo, our first 
and only encounter with the crime of attempted criminal threat, provides useful 
background for framing the issue presented here. 
In Toledo, a married couple was engaged in a domestic dispute, during which 
the husband told his wife, ― ‗You know, death is going to become you tonight.  I am 
going to kill you.‘ ‖  (Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 225.)  Shortly thereafter, the 
husband approached his wife with a pair of scissors and ―plunged the scissors 
toward her neck,‖ but ―stopped inches from her skin and said, ‗You don‘t want to 
6 
die tonight, do you?  You‘re not worth going to jail for.‘ ‖  (Ibid.)  The husband 
walked away, and the wife went to a neighbor‘s apartment, ―crying . . . and 
appearing frightened.‖  (Ibid.)  In statements to police that night, the wife said she 
― ‗was afraid‘ ‖ her husband ― ‗was going to kill her.‘ ‖  (Ibid.)  But at trial, she 
denied being fearful of her husband during the incident.  The husband was charged 
with various offenses, including criminal threat in violation of section 422.  The 
jury found him not guilty of criminal threat, but guilty of attempted criminal threat.  
The defendant challenged his conviction on the ground that no such crime exists in 
California.  (Toledo, at p. 226.) 
Toledo began by observing that the Legislature enacted section 422 after this 
court had found a former version of the statute to be unconstitutionally vague.  
(Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at pp. 228–229.)  Then, after reviewing the law of 
criminal attempt (§§ 21a, 664), we said the plain language of section 664, which 
prescribes punishment for ―[e]very person who attempts to commit any crime‖ 
(italics added), ―includes those who attempt to commit the crime of criminal threat 
set forth in section 422.‖  (Toledo, at p. 230.)  Under section 21a, ―a defendant 
properly may be found guilty of attempted criminal threat whenever, acting with the 
specific intent to commit the offense of criminal threat, the defendant performs an 
act that goes beyond mere preparation and indicates that he or she is putting a plan 
into action.‖  (Ibid.) 
This result, we explained, comports with the legislative purpose underlying 
section 422.  The crime of attempted criminal threat encompasses situations where a 
defendant intends to commit a criminal threat ―but is thwarted from completing the 
crime by some fortuity or unanticipated event.‖  (Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at 
p. 232.)  ―For example, if a defendant takes all steps necessary to perpetrate the 
completed crime of criminal threat by means of a written threat, but the crime is not 
completed only because the written threat is intercepted before delivery to the 
7 
threatened person, the defendant properly may be found guilty of attempted 
criminal threat.  Similarly, if a defendant, with the requisite intent, orally makes a 
sufficient threat directly to the threatened person, but for some reason the threatened 
person does not understand the threat, an attempted criminal threat also would 
occur.  Further, if a defendant, again acting with the requisite intent, makes a 
sufficient threat that is received and understood by the threatened person, but, for 
whatever reason, the threat does not actually cause the threatened person to be in 
sustained fear for his or her safety even though, under the circumstances, that 
person reasonably could have been placed in such fear, the defendant properly may 
be found to have committed the offense of attempted criminal threat.‖  (Id. at 
p. 231.)  In such situations, ―imposing criminal liability upon the defendant for 
attempted criminal threat in no way will undermine the legislative purpose of 
prohibiting threats of the specific nature and severity of those identified in section 
422.‖  (Id. at p. 232.) 
We went on to ―reject the contention that the crime of attempted criminal 
threat is unconstitutionally overbroad‖ in violation of the First Amendment.  
(Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 233.)  Citing the examples above, we said the crime 
―in most instances‖ will involve circumstances where ―the defendant in fact has 
engaged in all of the conduct that would support a conviction for criminal threat, 
but where the crime of criminal threat has not been completed only because of some 
fortuity outside the defendant‘s control or anticipation . . . .‖  (Id. at p. 234.)  
Because a defendant‘s speech is not constitutionally protected in ―the general 
circumstances to which the crime . . . ordinarily will apply‖ (id. at p. 233), we 
reasoned, the crime of attempted criminal threat is not overbroad on its face.  Nor 
was the offense unconstitutional as applied in Toledo, where the evidence might 
have led the jury to conclude that the defendant‘s threat ―reasonably could have 
8 
caused [the victim] to be in sustained fear‖ even though it did not ―actually cause[] 
[the victim] to be in such fear.‖  (Id. at p. 235.) 
Toledo thus confirmed the existence and constitutional validity of the crime 
of attempted criminal threat.  However, we had no occasion to decide whether the 
crime requires that the intended threat be objectively threatening.  Toledo 
contemplated that ―in most instances‖ the crime will involve an intended threat that 
is ―sufficient‖ to cause a reasonable person to be in sustained fear but, for whatever 
reason, fails to cause the victim to ―actually‖ be in sustained fear.  (Toledo, supra, 
26 Cal.4th at pp. 231, 234.)  But Toledo did not purport to identify every possible 
scenario that could support a conviction of attempted criminal threat.  Nor did we 
address any contention that an intended threat must be sufficient to cause a 
reasonable person to be in sustained fear.  That contention is now squarely before 
us. 
III. 
Under the criminal attempt statute, attempted criminal threat requires ―a 
specific intent to commit the crime‖ of criminal threat ―and a direct but ineffectual 
act done toward its commission.‖  (§ 21a.)  Tracking the language of the criminal 
threat statute (§ 422), we said in Toledo that the intent required for an attempted 
criminal threat is a specific intent ―to threaten to commit a crime resulting in death 
or great bodily injury with the further intent that the threat be taken as a threat, 
under circumstances sufficient to convey to the person threatened a gravity of 
purpose and an immediate prospect of execution so as to reasonably cause the 
person to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her family‘s 
safety.‖  (Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at pp. 230–231.) 
Neither Toledo nor the language of sections 21a and 422, subdivision (a) 
makes clear whether an attempted criminal threat requires a specific intent to make 
a threat that is objectively sufficient to cause the victim reasonably to be in 
9 
sustained fear or whether it is enough that the offender subjectively intends the 
threat to be sufficient to cause the victim reasonably to be in sustained fear.  The 
latter is a plausible construction of the criminal attempt statute as applied to section 
422.  But the former is also plausible on the ground that if reasonableness were 
purely a matter of subjective belief instead of an objective standard, then a ―specific 
intent‖ (§ 21a) to cause a ―person reasonably to be in sustained fear‖ (§ 422, 
subd. (a), italics added) would be no different than a specific intent to simply cause 
a person to be in sustained fear, with the word ―reasonably‖ omitted.  The 
ambiguity arises from the application of the term ―specific intent‖ in section 21a to 
the word ―reasonably‖ in section 422.  (See Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 234 [―a 
defendant can be found to have committed the crime of attempted criminal threat 
only if he or she acts with the specific intent to make the very kind of threat . . . to 
which section 422 applies‖].)  Unlike our dissenting colleague (dis. opn., post, at 
p. 6), we find no unambiguous meaning here. 
In resolving this ambiguity, we first discuss generally applicable principles 
of the law of attempt.  We then examine constitutional concerns that arise 
specifically from the fact that attempted criminal threat, unlike other attempt 
crimes, criminalizes a category of speech.  We ultimately construe the elements of 
attempted criminal threat in light of those constitutional concerns. 
A. 
In general, the specific intent required by the law of attempt does not require 
a showing that the intended act would be effective in completing the target crime.  
Attempted murder, for example, requires a specific intent to unlawfully kill another 
human being with malice aforethought.  (§§ 187, 664.)  If a defendant had tried to 
kill another person by using poison but misjudged the amount of poison necessary 
to kill, the defendant‘s misapprehension would not be a legal barrier to an attempted 
murder conviction.  The defendant might argue that his use of insufficient poison 
10 
casts doubt on whether he actually intended to kill, but assuming sufficient evidence 
to the contrary, a jury could find that the defendant, despite his misapprehension, 
had a specific intent to kill.  A conviction of attempted murder in such 
circumstances would satisfy the two elements of an attempt:  ―a specific intent to 
commit the crime, and a direct but ineffectual act done toward its commission.‖  
(§ 21a.) 
Many other examples confirm that a person may be convicted of an attempt 
to commit a crime he never could have completed under the circumstances.  (See, 
e.g., People v. Rojas (1961) 55 Cal.2d 252, 256–258 [the defendants could be 
convicted of attempting to receive stolen property by receiving items that they 
believed to be stolen but had actually been recovered by police]; People v. Pham 
(2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 552, 560–561 [―[D]efendant cannot escape liability for his 
attempt to kill [the victims] just because, contrary to his belief, it turned out his 
intended victims were not where he thought they were.  His crimes were complete 
when, with the intent to kill the two teenagers, he fired shots into a group in which 
he thought they were.‖]; In re Ryan N. (2001) 92 Cal.App.4th 1359, 1380–1384 
[substantial evidence of an attempt to assist a suicide where the defendant 
encouraged the victim to take pills that were not actually lethal]; People v. 
Thompson (1993) 12 Cal.App.4th 195, 202–203 [the defendant could be convicted 
of attempted rape for having sex with a victim he believed was alive but was 
actually dead]; People v. Reed (1996) 53 Cal.App.4th 389, 396–397 [affirming 
attempted child molestation conviction where the defendant was involved in a sting 
and there were no actual children]. 
Further, we have held that the commission of an attempt does not require 
proof of any particular element of the completed crime.  (See People v. Scott (2011) 
52 Cal.4th 452, 488 [attempted rape]; People v. Lindberg (2008) 45 Cal.4th 1, 30 
[attempted robbery]; see also People v. Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441, 454–455.)  
11 
Here it is true that the Legislature enacted section 422 in order ―to describe and 
limit the type of threat‖ comprising the completed offense of criminal threat.  
(Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 229; see id. at pp. 228–229.)  But neither the text 
nor legislative history of section 422 addresses the interplay between the offense of 
criminal threat and the generally applicable law of attempt. 
In addressing the question before us, we leave undisturbed the foregoing 
principles of the law of attempt, which are well established.  Those principles, 
without more, tend to suggest that a statement that is intended as a threat, but 
ineffectual as such, may fall within the scope of an attempted criminal threat.  
However, we are confronted with an additional consideration that is specific to this 
case:  Attempted criminal threat, unlike other attempt crimes, penalizes speech.  
The parties have devoted most of their briefing to whether it violates the First 
Amendment to criminalize speech that, though intended as a threat, is not actually 
threatening enough under the circumstances to cause a reasonable person to be in 
sustained fear.  We now examine this constitutional issue and its implications for 
the offense of attempted criminal threat. 
B. 
At first blush, a statement intended by its speaker as a threat might not 
immediately call to mind core First Amendment values.  But, as the United States 
Supreme Court has long recognized, the First Amendment ―demands that content-
based restrictions on speech be presumed invalid [citation] and that the Government 
bear the burden of showing their constitutionality.‖  (Ashcroft v. American Civil 
Liberties Union (2004) 542 U.S. 656, 660.)  This principle does not depend on a 
court‘s independent valuation of the suppressed speech:  ―The First Amendment‘s 
guarantee of free speech does not extend only to categories of speech that survive 
an ad hoc balancing of relative social costs and benefits.  The First Amendment 
itself reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions 
12 
on the Government outweigh the costs.  Our Constitution forecloses any attempt to 
revise that judgment simply on the basis that some speech is not worth it.‖  (United 
States v. Stevens (2010) 559 U.S. 460, 470 (Stevens).)  Indeed, ―[m]ost of what we 
say to one another lacks ‗religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, 
historical, or artistic value‘ (let alone serious value), but it is still sheltered from 
government regulation.‖  (Id. at p. 479.) 
Thus, for example, video games in which ― ‗[v]ictims are dismembered, 
decapitated, disemboweled, set on fire, and chopped into little pieces‘ ‖ retain First 
Amendment protection.  (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assn. (2011) 564 U.S. 
__, __ [131 S.Ct. 2729, 2738] (Brown).)  The high court has also held that virtual 
child pornography is protected speech.  (Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) 
535 U.S. 234, 250–251 (Free Speech Coalition).)  In reaching these conclusions, 
the high court has underscored that it is not the speaker‘s burden to demonstrate 
why such speech merits protection, but rather the government‘s burden to put 
forward a sufficient justification for excluding the speech from the First 
Amendment‘s protection.  (See Brown, at p. __ [131 S.Ct. at p. 2738]; Free Speech 
Coalition, at p. 246; see also United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group, Inc. 
(2000) 529 U.S. 803, 816–817 (Playboy).) 
Consistent with these principles, the high court has made clear that any 
statute that ―makes criminal a form of pure speech . . . must be interpreted with the 
commands of the First Amendment clearly in mind.‖  (Watts v. United States (1969) 
394 U.S. 705, 707 (Watts).)  In Watts, the defendant said at a public rally on the 
Washington Monument grounds that he would not respond to his draft notice and 
that ― ‗If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is 
L.B.J.‘ ‖  (Id. at p. 706.)  Reversing the defendant‘s conviction under a statute 
prohibiting threats against the President, the high court said the defendant‘s speech, 
13 
considered in context, was ―political hyperbole‖ rather than a ―true ‗threat‘ ‖ and 
was therefore constitutionally protected.  (Id. at p. 708.) 
Citing Watts, the high court in Virginia v. Black (2003) 538 U.S. 343 (Black) 
said ―the First Amendment . . . permits a State to ban a ‗true threat.‘ [Citations.]  [¶] 
‗True threats‘ encompass those statements where the speaker means to 
communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful 
violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.  [Citations.]  The speaker 
need not actually intend to carry out the threat.  Rather, a prohibition on true threats 
‗protect[s] individuals from the fear of violence‘ and ‗from the disruption that fear 
engenders,‘ in addition to protecting people ‗from the possibility that the threatened 
violence will occur.‘  [Citation.]  Intimidation in the constitutionally proscribable 
sense of the word is a type of true threat, where a speaker directs a threat to a person 
or group of persons with the intent of placing the victim in fear of bodily harm or 
death.‖  (Id. at pp. 359–360.)  Black examined a Virginia statute prohibiting cross 
burning ― ‗with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons.‘ ‖  (Id. at 
p. 348.)  While invalidating a portion of the statute that treated the burning of a 
cross as prima facie evidence of an intent to intimidate (id. at pp. 363–367), the high 
court held that ―Virginia‘s statute does not run afoul of the First Amendment insofar 
as it bans cross burning with intent to intimidate‖ (id. at p. 362). 
The Court of Appeal below implicitly read Black to mean that ―[o]utlawing 
speech that is subjectively intended as a threat cannot possibly have any chilling 
effect on protected speech.‖  But it is arguable whether the high court ruled so 
broadly.  It is true, as the Court of Appeal noted, that ―the Virginia law at issue did 
not require that anybody actually be intimidated, much less that it be reasonable for 
someone to be intimidated under the circumstances.‖  However, there was no 
suggestion in either of the two cases consolidated in Black that the victims of the 
cross burnings were not actually or reasonably intimidated.  Nor would such a 
14 
contention have had much force given the high court‘s recognition that when cross-
burning is done with an intent to intimidate, it is an especially effective form of 
intimidation.  (See Black, supra, 538 U.S. at p. 357 [―[W]hen a cross burning is 
used to intimidate, few if any messages are more powerful.‖]; ibid. [―[W]hen a 
cross burning is directed at a particular person not affiliated with the Klan, the 
burning cross often serves as a message of intimidation, designed to inspire in the 
victim a fear of bodily harm.  Moreover, the history of violence associated with the 
Klan shows that the possibility of injury or death is not just hypothetical.‖]; id. at 
p. 363 [―burning a cross is a particularly virulent form of intimidation‖]; ibid. 
[referring to ―cross burning‘s long and pernicious history as a signal of impending 
violence‖].)  Because the high court understood that cross burning done with an 
intent to intimidate is particularly effective at achieving its intended effect, and 
because there was no dispute in Black as to whether the victims were actually or 
reasonably put in fear, Black had no occasion to decide whether a subjective intent 
to threaten is sufficient by itself to establish a true threat, at least outside the context 
of cross burning. 
Nor does United States v. Williams (2008) 553 U.S. 285 (Williams) resolve 
the issue before us.  Williams held that a federal statute generally banning offers to 
provide or requests to obtain child pornography was not overbroad under the First 
Amendment.  In response to the contention that ―it would be unconstitutional to 
punish someone for mistakenly distributing virtual child pornography as real child 
pornography,‖ the high court said:  ―We disagree.  Offers to deal in illegal products 
or otherwise engage in illegal activity do not acquire First Amendment protection 
when the offeror is mistaken about the factual predicate of his offer.  The pandering 
and solicitation made unlawful by the Act are sorts of inchoate crimes—acts 
looking toward the commission of another crime, the delivery of child pornography.  
As with other inchoate crimes—attempt and conspiracy, for example—
15 
impossibility of completing the crime because the facts were not as the defendant 
believed is not a defense.‖  (Id. at p. 300.) 
Williams also noted that the federal statute at issue targeted ― ‗[a]ny person 
who [¶] . . . knowingly [¶] . . . advertises, promotes, presents, distributes, or solicits 
. . . any material or purported material in a manner that reflects the belief, or that is 
intended to cause another to believe, that the material or purported material is, or 
contains‘ ‖ a visual depiction of a ― ‗minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.‘ ‖  
(Williams, supra, 553 U.S. at pp. 289–290.)  The statute defined ― ‗ ―sexually 
explicit conduct‖ ‘ ‖ to include ― ‗lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area 
of any person.‘ ‖  (Id. at p. 290.)  In response to the argument that ―the statute could 
apply to someone who subjectively believes that an innocuous picture of a child is 
‗lascivious,‘ ‖ the high court said:  ―That is not so.  The defendant must believe that 
the picture contains certain material, and that material in fact (and not merely in his 
estimation) must meet the statutory definition.  Where the material at issue is a 
harmless picture of a child in a bathtub and the defendant, knowing that material, 
erroneously believes that it constitutes a ‗lascivious exhibition of the genitals,‘ the 
statute has no application.‖  (Id. at p. 301.) 
Notably, this latter reasoning in Williams was not compelled by the statutory 
text, which refers only to a panderer‘s or solicitor‘s ― ‗belief‘ ‖ that the material 
contains depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  (Williams, 
supra, 553 U.S. at p. 290.)  The statute does not contain an objective requirement 
that the material in fact depict sexually explicit conduct.  But the high court read 
such a requirement into the statute in the course of rejecting First Amendment 
concerns about the statute‘s potential breadth.  (Williams, at pp. 300–301.)  Thus, 
we do not believe it is clear from Williams that a defendant‘s subjective belief in the 
illegality of his conduct is, in all instances, sufficient to remove speech-based 
conduct from First Amendment concern.  And we are not aware of any case that has 
16 
extended the principle that ―impossibility of completing the crime because the facts 
were not as the defendant believed is not a defense‖ (Williams, at p. 300) to allow 
punishment of speech that the speaker believed to be threatening but was not 
objectively so. 
Our own cases in this area have held that speech may be punished when it is 
threatening to a reasonable person, but we have not addressed whether a subjective 
intent to threaten is alone sufficient to establish a true threat.  In Toledo, we held 
that ―the type of threat satisfying the criminal threat provisions of section 422 — 
that is, a threat ‗to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury 
to another person . . . which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is 
made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the 
person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of 
the threat‘ — constitutes speech that falls outside the protection of the First 
Amendment.‖  (Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 233.)  Toledo relied on In re M.S. 
(1995) 10 Cal.4th 698, where we upheld a pair of hate crime statutes and said:  
―When a reasonable person would foresee that the context and import of the words 
will cause the listener to believe he or she will be subjected to physical violence, the 
threat falls outside First Amendment protection.‖  (Id. at p. 710; see Toledo, at 
p. 233.) 
In People v. Lowery (2011) 52 Cal.4th 419 (Lowery), we examined section 
140, subdivision (a), which prohibits ―willfully‖ threatening a witness.  The 
defendant argued that his conviction violated the First Amendment ―because the 
statute lacked a specific intent requirement.‖  (Lowery, at p. 421.)  We 
acknowledged that the statute requires only ― ‗a purpose or willingness to commit 
the [threatening] act‘ ‖ and does not require a specific intent to threaten.  (Id. at 
p. 427.)  But in order ―to ensure the constitutionality of section 140(a),‖ we 
construed the statute ―as applying only to those threatening statements that a 
17 
reasonable listener would understand, in light of the context and surrounding 
circumstances, to constitute a true threat, namely, ‗a serious expression of an intent 
to commit an act of unlawful violence‘ [citation], rather than an expression of jest 
or frustration.‖  (Ibid.)  Lowery thus held that a subjective intent to threaten is not 
necessary to remove threatening speech from constitutional protection; the 
objectively threatening character of the speech suffices.  (Accord, U.S. v. Elonis (3d 
Cir. 2013) 730 F.3d 321, cert. granted June 16, 2014, 573 U.S. __ [2014 WL 
655474] (Elonis).))  But Lowery did not address whether a subjective intent to 
threaten is sufficient to remove speech that is not objectively threatening from 
constitutional protection. 
Five justices in Lowery signed a concurring opinion that explained why 
United States v. Bagdasarian (9th Cir. 2011) 652 F.3d 1113 was ―mistaken‖ in 
holding that a ― ‗true threat‘ ‖ requires ―proof that the speaker subjectively intended 
the statements to be taken as a threat.‖  (Lowery, supra, 52 Cal.4th at p. 428 (conc. 
opn. of Baxter, J.).)  The concurring opinion emphasized that ―decisions prior to 
Black ‗ ―almost uniformly‖ ‘ applied an objective standard, not a subjective 
standard, to determine whether a statement was a true threat and thus outside the 
protections afforded by the First Amendment.  [Citations.]‖  (Id. at p. 429.)  The 
opinion went on to say:  ―One might also question the logic of resting the 
constitutional determination whether speech qualifies as a true threat on the 
subjective understanding of the speaker, without regard to whether the speech 
objectively would be viewed as threatening.  [Citation.]  A statement that is 
subjectively intended to be a threat but which presents no objective indicators of its 
threatening nature would not trigger fear in the recipient or cause disruption.‖  (Id. 
at p. 432.) 
What was true when we decided Lowery remains true today:  The great 
weight of authority, both before and after Black, has focused on the objective 
18 
character of a threat as the dividing line between protected speech and an 
unprotected true threat.  (See, e.g., U.S. v. Jeffries (6th Cir. 2012) 692 F.3d 473, 480 
[―What is excluded from First Amendment protection—threats rooted in their effect 
on the listener—works well with a test that focuses not on the intent of the speaker 
but on the effect on a reasonable listener of the speech.‖]; U.S. v. White (4th Cir. 
2012) 670 F.3d 498, 511 [―. . . First Amendment principles distinguish protected 
speech from unprotected speech based on an objective view of the speech, not its 
mens rea‖]; United States v. Mabie (8th Cir. 2011) 663 F.3d 322, 332–333; Porter 
v. Ascension Parish Sch. Bd. (5th Cir. 2004) 393 F.3d 608, 616; U.S. v. Malik (2d 
Cir. 1994) 16 F.3d 45, 49; U.S. v. Kosma (3d Cir. 1991) 951 F.2d 549, 556–557; but 
see Bagdasarian, supra, 652 F.3d at pp. 1117–1118 & fn. 14 [reading Black to set 
forth a subjective test while noting that the statements at issue in Bagdasarian failed 
to pass either an objective or subjective test] .)  All of these cases, like Lowery, 
addressed whether a subjective intent to threaten is necessary, not whether it is 
sufficient, to establish a true threat.  But it is evident from the case law that, if we 
were to uphold a conviction for attempted criminal threat with no requirement that 
the defendant‘s statement caused a person reasonably to be in sustained fear, our 
court would be the first to hold that a subjective intent to threaten is sufficient by 
itself to eliminate First Amendment protection from speech that is not objectively 
threatening. 
The absence of firm authority for such a rule gives us pause, as does its 
potential breadth.  Suppose the defendant in Watts had been deluded as to his own 
efficacy and had subjectively believed his threat against President Johnson was 
sufficient to induce reasonable fear, even though it was objectively insufficient.  
Would it impinge on protected speech to punish his intended threat, even if any 
reasonable person would have understood it as ―political hyperbole‖ (Watts, supra, 
394 U.S. at p. 708)?  Or consider the facts of NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. 
19 
(1982) 458 U.S. 886 (Claiborne Hardware).  In ―an impassioned plea for black 
citizens to unify, to support and respect each other, and to realize the political and 
economic power available to them‖ (id. at p. 928), Charles Evers (the older brother 
of Medgar Evers) said in a speech to several hundred people:  ― ‗If we catch any of 
you going in any of them racist stores, we‘re gonna break your damn neck‘ ‖ (id. at 
p. 902).  Could the police have arrested Evers based on probable cause of a 
subjective intent to threaten, even if it was clear in context that the speech was not 
objectively threatening?  Such exposure would be in tension with the precept that 
―[t]he government ‗cannot constitutionally premise legislation on the desirability of 
controlling a person‘s private thoughts.‘ ‖  (Free Speech Coalition, supra, 535 U.S. 
at p. 253.)  It would also risk a chilling effect, since ―a speaker might still be 
worried about being prosecuted for a careless . . . statement, even if he does not 
have the intent required to render him liable.‖  (United States v. Alvarez (2012) 567 
U.S. __, __ [132 S.Ct. 2357, 2555] (conc. opn. of Breyer, J.).) 
To be sure, defendant‘s statements in this case do not resemble the political 
speech at issue in Watts and Claiborne Hardware.  But if we are to posit a category 
of constitutionally proscribable speech based on a subjective intent to threaten, it is 
not obvious that the First Amendment permits ―the further content discrimination of 
proscribing only‖ those statements we deem to have no social value while 
protecting those statements we deem socially valuable.  (R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul 
(1992) 505 U.S. 377, 384; see id. at p. 386 [―the power to proscribe [speech] on the 
basis of one content element . . . does not entail the power to proscribe it on the 
basis of other content elements‖].)  The high court has expressly declined to 
authorize such value-based content discrimination outside the context of obscenity.  
(See Stevens, supra, 559 U.S. at pp. 479–480.)  In evaluating sexual material not 
alleged to be obscene, the high court has said:  ―We cannot be influenced . . . by the 
perception that the regulation in question is not a major one because the speech is 
20 
not very important.  The history of the law of free expression is one of vindication 
in cases involving speech that many citizens may find shabby, offensive, or even 
ugly.  It follows that all content-based restrictions on speech must give us more than 
a moment‘s pause.‖  (Playboy, supra, 529 U.S. at p. 826.) 
Further, we note that the high court in Black identified three rationales for 
excluding true threats from the ambit of the First Amendment:  protecting people 
― ‗from the fear of violence,‘ ‖ protecting people ― ‗from the disruption that fear 
engenders,‘ ‖  and protecting people ― ‗from the possibility that the threatened 
violence will occur.‘ ‖  (Black, supra, 538 U.S. at p. 360.)  Although all three 
rationales apply to burning a cross with an intent to intimidate (see ante, at p. 13), it 
is questionable whether any of them applies to statements that are not objectively 
threatening.  As to the first two rationales, ―[a] statement that is subjectively 
intended to be a threat but which presents no objective indicators of its threatening 
nature would not trigger fear in the recipient or cause disruption.‖  (Lowery, supra, 
52 Cal.4th at p. 432 (conc. opn. of Baxter, J.).)  And as to the third rationale, the 
possibility that threatened violence will occur is a reason not to protect speech that 
is objectively threatening.  But it is not clear how speech that is not objectively 
threatening would trigger, except in the most speculative way, a possibility that the 
threatened violence will occur.  (Cf. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. at p. 253 
[―The government may not prohibit speech because it increases the chance an 
unlawful act will be committed ‗at some indefinite future time.‘ ‖].) 
C. 
As the discussion above indicates, criminalizing a statement that is intended 
as a threat but is not objectively threatening raises serious constitutional issues.  We 
need not resolve those issues in this case, however, because ―a statute must be 
construed, if reasonably possible, in a manner that avoids a serious constitutional 
question.‖  (People v. Engram (2010) 50 Cal.4th 1131, 1161.) 
21 
As noted (ante, at pp. 8–9), neither the criminal threat statute (§ 422) nor the 
criminal attempt statutes (§§ 21a, 664) unambiguously indicate that an attempted 
criminal threat requires only a subjective intent to threaten, with no objective 
component.  To avoid substantial First Amendment concerns associated with 
criminalizing speech, we construe the offense of attempted criminal threat to require 
proof that the defendant had a subjective intent to threaten and that the intended 
threat under the circumstances was sufficient to cause a reasonable person to be in 
sustained fear.  Accordingly, when a defendant is charged with attempted criminal 
threat, the jury must be instructed that the offense requires not only that the 
defendant have an intent to threaten but also that the intended threat be sufficient 
under the circumstances to cause a reasonable person to be in sustained fear. 
Again, we emphasize that our holding is specific to attempts to violate 
section 422; it does not disturb the generally applicable law of criminal attempt. 
IV. 
In this case, defendant contends that the trial court‘s instructions did not 
convey to the jury that it had to find the intended threats sufficient to cause 
reasonable fear under the circumstances.  But whether or not the instructions 
adequately conveyed this element of the offense, reversal is not warranted because 
any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.  (See Neder v. United States 
(1999) 527 U.S. 1, 8–15; People v. Cole (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1158, 1208–1209.) 
Upon reviewing the record, we conclude that no reasonable juror could have 
failed to find defendant‘s threats sufficient under the circumstances to cause a 
reasonable person to be in sustained fear.  Neither the prosecution nor the defense 
ever suggested that defendant could be convicted of attempted criminal threat based 
solely on his subjective intent to threaten.  Nor does the evidence suggest that the 
jury convicted defendant on that basis, since defendant expressly threatened to kill 
both victims.  Moreover, the defense theory at trial did not contest the 
22 
reasonableness of the victims‘ fear.  Instead, defendant argued that there was 
reasonable doubt as to whether he made any of the alleged threats and that the 
threats, if made, did not cause actual or sustained fear.  For example, defense 
counsel argued in closing,  ―When you look at this case, you have to look at the 
credibility of the witnesses.  You have to look at whether or not, first of all, did Mr. 
Chandler even do anything.  Did he even say anything.  And if he did, what was his 
intent and what was the effect on the listener.  Basically, did it put them in sustained 
fear?  Not just fear for a fleeting second, but sustained fear.‖  In rebuttal, the 
prosecutor responded, ―I‘m not really sure what the defense is here.  Is it that he 
didn‘t do it, or is it that those victims were not afraid?‖ 
The facts here differ from those in Jackson.  There the defendant stood 
outside the victims‘ house while the victims were inside, and one victim testified 
―she believed that defendant had mentioned both ‗blowing our heads off‘ and 
‗chopping our heads off.‘ ‖  (Jackson, supra, 178 Cal.App.4th at p. 594.)  The Court 
of Appeal, in reversing the conviction, reasoned that ―the jury might have 
concluded, since [the victims] were safely inside the house with a telephone to call 
the police while defendant sat out front, or since defendant‘s threats were so 
outlandish, that defendant‘s statements could not reasonably have caused the 
victims to suffer sustained fear.‖  (Id. at p. 600.)  Here, by contrast, Lopez and Alva 
testified that defendant, a neighbor, made explicit threats that he was going to kill 
each of them, and defendant made the threats while face-to-face with the victims 
(and, in Alva‘s case, while swinging a golf club) on the street where the victims 
lived. 
In sum, defendant‘s threats were sufficient under the circumstances to cause 
a reasonable person to be in sustained fear — indeed, defendant did not argue 
otherwise at trial — and no reasonable juror could have concluded otherwise. 
23 
CONCLUSION 
 
For the reasons above, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
LIU, J. 
 
 
WE CONCUR: CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J. 
 
WERDEGAR, J. 
 
CHIN, J.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONCURRING AND DISSENTING OPINION BY CORRIGAN, J. 
 
The majority reasons that ―[t]o avoid substantial First Amendment concerns 
associated with criminalizing speech, we construe the offense of attempted 
criminal threat to require proof that the defendant had a subjective intent to 
threaten and that the intended threat under the circumstances was sufficient to 
cause a reasonable person to be in sustained fear.‖  (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 21.)  The 
majority posits that avoidance of constitutional concerns requires us to assume that 
an objective threat is an element of an attempted criminal threat.  The facts of this 
case do not raise this issue.  Yet the majority reaches out to add an element and to 
create an instructional duty in every case.  I respectfully decline to join this 
expansion.   
The majority‘s conclusion stems from a misapplication of the doctrine of 
constitutional avoidance.  This canon of interpretation applies to ambiguous 
statutes:  ―When a question of statutory interpretation implicates constitutional 
issues, we are guided by the precept that ‗ ―[i]f a statute is susceptible of two 
constructions, one of which will render it constitutional and the other 
unconstitutional in whole or in part, or raise serious and doubtful constitutional 
questions, the court will adopt the construction which, without doing violence to 
the reasonable meaning of the language used, will render it valid in its entirety, or 
free from doubt as to its constitutionality, even though the other construction is 
equally reasonable.‖ ‘ ‖  (People v. Gutierrez (2014) 58 Cal.4th 1354, 1373; see 
People v. Leiva (2013) 56 Cal.4th 498, 506-507.)  To apply this canon, however, 
―the statute must be realistically susceptible of two interpretations . . . .‖  (People 
 
2 
v. Anderson (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1104, 1146.)  As the high court has cautioned, in the 
context of interpreting a federal statute:  ―The canon is not a method of 
adjudicating constitutional questions by other means.  [Citations.]  Indeed, one of 
the canon‘s chief justifications is that it allows courts to avoid the decision of 
constitutional questions.  It is a tool for choosing between competing plausible 
interpretations of a statutory text, resting on the reasonable presumption that 
Congress did not intend the alternative which raises serious constitutional doubts.‖  
(Clark v. Martinez (2005) 543 U.S. 371, 381, second italics added.)   
Here, no ambiguity justifies application of the doctrine.  Neither the 
substantive criminal threats statute (Pen. Code,1 § 422) nor the general attempt 
statutes (§§ 21a, 664) suggest in any way that an objective threat must be an 
element of an attempted criminal threat.  Section 422, subdivision (a) requires that, 
to complete the crime of making a criminal threat, a statement ―on its face and 
under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, 
immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose 
and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that 
person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her 
immediate family‘s safety . . . .‖  Thus, the completed crime requires an 
objectively threatening statement.  But section 422, like most substantive criminal 
statutes, does not address attempts.   
In recognizing the crime of attempted criminal threats, People v. Toledo (2001) 
26 Cal.4th 221 (Toledo) discussed two ways in which an attempt to criminally 
threaten might be ineffectual:  (1) The defendant‘s threat was intended to cause fear, 
but it was not actually conveyed because it was intercepted, unheard, or not 
                                            
1  
Subsequent undesignated statutory references will be to the Penal Code.   
 
3 
understood; (2) the threat was intended to cause fear, but did not actually make the 
intended victim fearful.  (Id. at p. 231.)  There is another way in which an intended 
threat may be ineffectual and thus reduce the crime to an attempt.  A defendant may 
intend to put the victim in reasonable fear but choose an insufficient threat.  In such a 
circumstance, he could not be convicted of a completed crime.  But he could be 
convicted of an attempt in the same way that an intended poisoner can be guilty of an 
attempted murder even if he chooses an ineffective poison.   
Indeed, Toledo itself applied the general law of attempt:  ―[I]t would appear 
to follow as a matter of course that there is a crime of attempted criminal threat in 
this state, defined through the interplay of section 422 and the statutory provisions 
relating to attempts.  As we have seen, section 664, by its terms, provides that 
‗[e]very person who attempts to commit any crime‘ (italics added) is subject to the 
criminal punishment set forth in that provision, and this language on its face thus 
includes those who attempt to commit the crime of criminal threat set forth in 
section 422.‖  (Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 230.)  Section 21a provides that 
―[a]n attempt to commit a crime consists of two elements:  a specific intent to 
commit the crime, and a direct but ineffectual act done toward its commission.‖  
―Under the provisions of [Penal Code] section 21a, a defendant properly may be 
found guilty of attempted criminal threat whenever, acting with the specific intent 
to commit the offense of criminal threat, the defendant performs an act that goes 
beyond mere preparation and indicates that he or she is putting a plan into action.‖  
(Toledo, at p. 230.)  ―In other words, we have explained, the act must represent 
‗ ―some appreciable fragment of the crime.‖ ‘ ‖  (People v. Watkins (2012) 55 
Cal.4th 999, 1021.)   
When a defendant acts with the required intent and takes a direct but 
ineffectual step toward the completion of that crime, he commits an attempted 
crime.  His intent must be to cause sustained and reasonable fear.  It is the 
 
4 
ineffectual nature of his act—as posited here, an insufficiently fear-inducing 
threat—that makes his offense an attempt rather than a completed crime.   
The majority acknowledges that the law of attempt is replete with examples 
of cases affirming convictions for attempting to commit a crime where the 
defendant could not have completed the offense.  (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 10; see, 
e.g., People v. Pham (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 552, 560-561 [―[D]efendant cannot 
escape liability for his attempt to kill [the victims] just because, contrary to his 
belief, it turned out his intended victims were not where he thought they were.  His 
crimes were complete when, with the intent to kill the two teenagers, he fired shots 
into a group in which he thought they were.‖]; People v. Reed (1996) 53 
Cal.App.4th 389, 396-397 [affirming attempted child molestation conviction 
where the defendant was involved in a sting which involved no actual children]; 
People v. Ross (1988) 205 Cal.App.3d 1548, 1554 [substantial evidence of 
attempted false imprisonment where the defendant put threatening notes on the 
victims‘ cars, rejecting claim that ―present ability or personal presence is a 
prerequisite to the crime of attempted false imprisonment‖]; People v. Siu (1954) 
126 Cal.App.2d 41, 44 [affirming conviction of attempted possession of narcotics 
where the defendant, in a sting operation, received talcum powder he believed was 
heroin]; see also In re Ryan N. (2001) 92 Cal.App.4th 1359, 1380-1384 
[substantial evidence of an attempt to assist a suicide where the defendant 
encouraged the victim to take pills that were not actually lethal]; People v. 
Thompson (1993) 12 Cal.App.4th 195, 202-203 [the defendant could be convicted 
of attempted rape for having sex with a victim he believed was alive but was 
actually dead]; People v. Meyer (1985) 169 Cal.App.3d 496, 503-506 [affirming 
conviction for attempting to furnish a substance for manufacture of a controlled 
substance where the defendant sold methylamine to an undercover officer 
erroneously believing it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine]; cf. 
 
5 
People v. Rojas (1961) 55 Cal.2d 252, 256-258 [the defendants could be convicted 
of attempting to receive stolen property by receiving items they believed to be 
stolen but that had actually been recovered by police]; People v. Parker (1963) 
217 Cal.App.2d 422, 427-429 [affirmed conviction for attempted receiving stolen 
property where items were not actually stolen].)   
The majority also acknowledges that ―the commission of an attempt does 
not require proof of any particular element of the completed crime.‖  (Maj. opn., 
ante, at p. 10; see People v. Scott (2011) 52 Cal.4th 452, 488 [attempted rape]; 
People v. Lindberg (2008) 45 Cal.4th 1, 30 [attempted robbery]; see also People v. 
Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441, 454-455.)  Indeed, the majority observes that 
―[t]hose principles, without more, tend to suggest that a statement that is intended 
as a threat, but ineffectual as such, may fall within the scope of an attempted 
criminal threat.‖  (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 11.)  These principles do more than simply 
―suggest‖ an objective threat is not an element of an attempted criminal threat.  
Applying the black letter law of attempt leads inexorably to the conclusion that no 
particular element of the completed criminal threat offense, including use of an 
objectively reasonable threat, is required to prove an attempt.  Until today, a jury 
considering a charge of attempted criminal threat would be instructed upon the 
completed offense, then given the general instruction regarding attempts, just like 
in any other attempt case.  These instructions convey the requirements that the 
defendant act with a specific intent to commit the offense and perform an 
ineffectual act toward its commission.  (See CALCRIM Nos. 1300 (Criminal 
Threat); 460 (Attempt Other Than Attempted Murder); see also CALJIC No. 
9.94.1 (Attempted Criminal Threats).)   
Based upon the settled law of attempts, which the majority emphasizes it 
does not disturb (see maj. opn., ante, at p. 11), there is simply no statutory 
ambiguity to interpret.  The majority suggests otherwise:  ―Neither Toledo nor the 
 
6 
language of sections 21a and 422, subdivision (a) makes clear whether an 
attempted criminal threat requires a specific intent to make a threat that is 
objectively sufficient to cause the victim reasonably to be in sustained fear or 
whether it is enough that the offender subjectively intends the threat to be 
sufficient to cause the victim reasonably to be in sustained fear.  The latter is a 
plausible construction of the criminal attempt statute as applied to section 422.  
But the former is also plausible on the ground that if reasonableness were purely a 
matter of subjective belief instead of an objective standard, then a ‗specific intent‘ 
(§ 21a) to cause a ‗person reasonably to be in sustained fear‘ (§ 422, subd. (a), 
italics added) would be no different than a specific intent to simply cause a person 
to be in sustained fear, with the word ‗reasonably‘ omitted.  The ambiguity arises 
from the application of the term ‗specific intent‘ in section 21a to the word 
‗reasonably‘ in section 422.‖  (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 8-9.)   
This reasoning fails for two reasons.  First, the majority discerns a potential 
ambiguity over the nature of the specific intent required.  However, that is not the 
issue here.  The question here is not whether defendant acted with specific intent.  
The issue here is whether an objective evaluation of the threat defendant intended 
to make is required to convict of attempted criminal threat.  As noted, on the latter 
point there is no statutory ambiguity:  The settled law of attempt does not require 
proof of any particular element of the completed offense.  Indeed, if the statutes 
pertaining to attempted criminal threat are ambiguous on this point, then virtually 
all attempt crimes would be similarly ambiguous because substantive criminal 
statutes are ordinarily silent regarding what is required to constitute an attempt to 
violate its provisions.  Any criminal attempt requires a specific intent to commit 
the crime attempted.   
Second, and more fundamentally, the cited ambiguity is not one derived 
from the relevant statutes.  Rather, any uncertainty regarding the elements of 
 
7 
attempted criminal threat stems from whether the First Amendment to the United 
States Constitution requires an objective threat to keep that offense from being 
overbroad and potentially infringing upon protected speech, a question the 
majority purports not to answer here.  Toledo declined to decide ―whether the 
crime of attempted criminal threat properly should be interpreted to reach 
circumstances in which the defendant has not yet actually made the type of threat 
prohibited by section 422 . . . .‖  (Toledo, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 234.)  This issue 
only arose there in the context of the defendant‘s claim that the crime of attempted 
criminal threat would be ―unconstitutionally overbroad because that crime 
assertedly may reach speech beyond that which is penalized by the criminal threat 
provision.‖  (Id. at p. 233.)  Toledo ultimately rejected the overbreadth claim 
because ―in virtually all, if not all, of its applications, the crime of attempted 
criminal threat will apply only to speech that is not constitutionally 
protected . . . .‖  (Id. at p. 235.)  Toledo did not suggest that the language of section 
422, 664, or 21a created some ambiguity as to whether an objective threat was an 
element of attempted criminal threat.   
Consistent with this understanding of Toledo, defendant argues the First 
Amendment requires that we engraft an objective threat requirement onto 
attempted criminal threat in order to make that offense constitutional.  He argues:  
―Just as a statement must be viewed objectively from the point of view of a 
reasonable person in determining whether it constitutes a criminal threat, an 
attempted criminal threat must be viewed from the same perspective, in order to 
insure that punishment will apply only to speech that clearly falls outside First 
Amendment protection.‖  Further, defendant relies principally upon People v. 
Jackson (2009) 178 Cal.App.4th 590, a case that so concluded:  ―By insisting that 
the intended threat be evaluated from the point of view of a reasonable person 
 
8 
under the circumstances of the case, we can insure that punishment will apply only 
to speech that clearly falls outside First Amendment protection.‖  (Id. at p. 598.)   
The well-established doctrine applicable here is this:  ―As a general rule, 
courts will not reach constitutional questions ‗unless absolutely necessary to a 
disposition‘ of the case before them [citation], and we could decline to consider 
the issue in the abstract and instead await its resolution within the framework of an 
actual controversy . . . .‖  (Amador Valley Joint Union High Sch. Dist. v. State Bd. 
of Equalization (1978) 22 Cal.3d 208, 233; see Santa Clara County Local 
Transportation Authority v. Guardino (1995) 11 Cal.4th 220, 230-231; Palermo v. 
Stockton Theaters (1948) 32 Cal.2d 53, 66; Estate of Johnson (1903) 139 Cal. 532, 
534.)  Notwithstanding its lengthy constitutional discussion, the majority correctly 
declines to decide the constitutional issue.  Simply put, the facts here do not 
implicate the question.  Defendant threatened to kill both victims and, as the 
majority recognizes, ―no reasonable juror could have failed to find defendant‘s 
threats sufficient under the circumstances to cause a reasonable person to be in 
sustained fear.‖  (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 21.)  Thus, this case can, and should, easily 
be resolved on nonconstitutional harmless error grounds.   
Because we are not deciding the constitutional question, and the case can be 
resolved on nonconstitutional grounds, there is no justification for assuming that 
an objective threat is an element of the offense and further concluding that trial 
courts must now instruct on the element in every case.  ―A criminal offense is . . . 
a collection of specific factual elements that the Legislature has chosen to define 
as a crime.‖  (People v. Anderson (2009) 47 Cal.4th 92, 101.)  ―Needless to say, it 
is the task of the Legislature, and not the courts, to define crimes and thus fix their 
elements.‖  (People v. Moretto (1994) 21 Cal.App.4th 1269, 1278.)  Judicial 
restraint counsels against reading an element into an offense when we have not 
 
9 
determined that course is constitutionally required.  I dissent from that portion of 
the majority opinion purporting to do so.   
CORRIGAN, J. 
WE CONCUR: 
 
BAXTER, J. 
CHAVEZ, J.  * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
_____________________________ 
 
* 
Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, 
Division Two, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to article VI, section 6 of the 
California Constitution.   
 
 
 
See next page for addresses and telephone numbers for counsel who argued in Supreme Court. 
 
Name of Opinion People v. Chandler 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Unpublished Opinion 
Original Appeal 
Original Proceeding 
Review Granted XXX 211 Cal.App.4th 114 
Rehearing Granted 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Opinion No. S207542 
Date Filed: August 28, 2014 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Court: Superior 
County: Riverside 
Judge: Mark E. Johnson 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Counsel: 
 
Stephen M. Hinkle, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant. 
 
Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, 
Assistant Attorney General, William M. Wood, Steven T. Oetting, Bradley A. Weinreb, Kathryn 
Kirschbaum and Christopher P. Beesley, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. 
 
Charles D. Dresow for Glen A. March as Amicus Curiae. 
 
 
 
 
2 
 
 
 
 
 
Counsel who argued in Supreme Court (not intended for publication with opinion): 
 
Stephen M. Hinkle 
290 Martellago Drive 
N. Venice, FL  34275 
(530) 553-4425 
 
Christopher P. Beesley 
Deputy Attorney General 
110 West A Street, Suite 1100 
San Diego, CA  92101 
(619) 645-2567