And I was just telling my daughter that good penmanship is important in life
Defendant walks into a bank, gives the teller a note and the teller cannot read the writing. She says: “I can’t read this. Can you tell me what you want?” The defendant gets flustered and walks out. Charge? Attempted robbery.
The case turns on the doctrine of abandonment, a fun legal defense that applies to attempts to commit crimes as well as conspiracies (Indiana Code 35-41-3-10. The statute just provides that abandonment of an attempt is a defense to the allegation of the attempt.
The Defendant here claims he abandoned the attempt to rob the bank, but the trial court instructed the jury that, to be considered voluntary, the Defendant’s decision to abandon must originate with the Defendant and must in no way be attributable to the influence of extrinsic circumstances.
The appeals court here affirms this: it’s not in the statute, but it’s part of the defense.
