Opinion ID: 1169826
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Instruction on Battery as a Lesser Included Offense of Attempted Rape

Text: (22) The jury found defendant guilty of attempted forcible rape of Sharon Rawls. (§§ 664, 261, subd. (a)(2).) Defendant argues that battery is a lesser offense necessarily included in the crime of attempted rape, and therefore the trial court should, on its own motion, have instructed the jury on battery. The failure to do so, he asserts, entitles him to a reversal of his conviction for attempted rape. When, as here, the accusatory pleading describes a crime in the statutory language, an offense is necessarily included in the greater offense when the greater offense cannot be committed without necessarily committing the lesser offense. ( People v. Mincey (1992) 2 Cal.4th 408, 452 [6 Cal. Rptr.2d 822, 827 P.2d 388].) Thus, battery would be a lesser included offense of attempted rape only if it were impossible to commit the greater crime of attempted rape without also committing the lesser offense of battery. (See People v. Wolcott (1983) 34 Cal.3d 92, 99 [192 Cal. Rptr. 748, 665 P.2d 520].) Section 242 defines battery as any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another. Therefore, a battery cannot be accomplished without a touching of the victim. ( People v. Longoria (1995) 34 Cal. App.4th 12, 16 [40 Cal. Rptr.2d 213].) In contrast, an attempted forcible rape does not require a touching of the victim. An attempt to commit a crime occurs when there is an effort to commit the crime that fails, or is prevented or intercepted. (§ 664.) Forcible rape is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished by means of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the person or another. (§ 261, subd. (a)(2).) Thus, an attempted forcible rape is an unsuccessful effort directed towards accomplishing an act of sexual intercourse by force or fear. Such an attempt could occur without a touching. For example, an attempted forcible rape would occur if a defendant pointed a gun at a woman and ordered her to submit to sexual intercourse, but the woman managed to escape without having been touched. Because, as just shown, attempted forcible rape can be committed without also necessarily committing the lesser crime of battery, it follows that the latter is not an offense necessarily included in the former. Accordingly, the trial court did not err when it did not on its own initiative instruct the jury on battery being a lesser included offense of attempted rape.