Opinion ID: 2450126
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Heading: Prior and Current Law of Criminal Attempt

Text: Before the passage of the reform legislation in 1989, the law of criminal attempt, though sanctioned by various statutes, was judicially defined. In order to submit an issue of criminal attempt to the jury, the State was required to present legally sufficient evidence of: (1) an intent to commit a specific crime; (2) an overt act toward the commission of that crime; and (3) a failure to consummate the crime. Bandy v. State, 575 S.W.2d 278, 281 (Tenn. 1979); Gervin v. State, 212 Tenn. 653, 371 S.W.2d 449, 451 (1963); Dupuy v. State, 204 Tenn. 624, 325 S.W.2d 238, 240 (1959). Of the elements of criminal attempt, the second, the overt act requirement, was by far the most problematic. By attempting to draw a sharp distinction between mere preparation to commit a criminal act, which did not constitute the required overt act, and a direct movement toward the commission after the preparations had been made, Dupuy, 325 S.W.2d at 239, 240, which did, Tennessee courts construed the term overt act very narrowly. The best example of this extremely narrow construction occurred in Dupuy . In that case, the Memphis police sought to lay a trap for a pharmacist suspected of performing illegal abortions by sending a young woman to request these services from him. After the woman had made several attempts to secure his services, he finally agreed to perform the abortion. The pharmacist transported the young woman to a hotel room, laid out his instruments in preparation for the procedure, and asked the woman to remove her clothes. At that point the police came into the room and arrested the pharmacist, who then admitted that he had performed abortions in the past. The defendant was convicted under a statute that made it illegal to procure a miscarriage, and he appealed to this Court. A majority of this Court reversed the conviction. After admitting that the defendant's reprehensible course of conduct would doubtlessly have resulted in the commission of the crime had he not been thwarted in his efforts by the arrival of the police, Dupuy, 325 S.W.2d at 239, the majority concluded that: While the defendant had completed his plan to do this crime the element of attempt [overt act] does not appear in this record. The proof shows that he did not use any of the instruments and did not touch the body of the girl in question. Under such facts we do not think that the defendant is guilty under the statute. Dupuy, 325 S.W.2d at 240. To support its holding, the Dupuy court quoted a treatise passage concerning actions that constituted mere preparation, as opposed to actions that would satisfy the overt act requirement: In a general way, however, it may be said that preparation consists in devising or arranging the means or measures necessary for the commission of the offense and that the attempt [overt act] is the direct movement toward the commission after the preparations are made. Even though a person actually intends to commit a crime, his procurement of the instrumentalities adapted to that end will not constitute an attempt to commit the crime in the absence of some overt act. Id. (quoting 14 Am.Jur. § 68 (1940)). To further illustrate the foregoing principle the majority provided the following example: the procurement by a prisoner of tools adapted to breaking jail does not render him guilty of an attempt to break jail. Id. As indicated above, the sharp differentiation in Dupuy between mere preparation and overt act, or the act itself, was characteristic of the pre-1989 attempt law. See e.g., Gervin v. State, 212 Tenn. 653, 371 S.W.2d 449 (1963) (criminal solicitation does not constitute an attempt); McEwing v. State, 134 Tenn. 649, 185 S.W. 688 (1915) (conviction for attempted rape affirmed because defendant actually laid hands on the victim). In 1989, however, the legislature enacted a general criminal attempt statute, Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-12-101, as part of its comprehensive overhaul of Tennessee's criminal law. In that statute, the legislature did not simply codify the judicially-created elements of the crime, but utilized language that had up to then been entirely foreign to Tennessee attempt law. Section 39-12-101 provides, in pertinent part, as follows: (a) A person commits criminal attempt who, acting with the kind of culpability otherwise required for the offense: (1) Intentionally engages in action or causes a result that would constitute an offense if the circumstances surrounding the conduct were as the person believes them to be; (2) Acts with intent to cause a result that is an element of the offense, and believes the conduct will cause the result without further conduct on the person's part; or (3) Acts with intent to complete a course of action or cause a result that would constitute the offense, under the circumstances surrounding the conduct as the person believe them to be, and the conduct constitutes a substantial step toward the commission of the offense. (b) Conduct does not constitute a substantial step under subdivision (a)(3) unless the person's entire course of action is corroborative of the intent to commit the offense. (emphasis added.)