There is a crime of attempted criminal threat. Penal Code section 422 makes it a crime to “wilfully threaten to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person” under certain circumstances. The general attempt statute (section 664) applies to section 422, and this is neither unconstitutionally overbroad on its face by prohibiting protected speech, nor as applied. Here defendant, after arguing with his wife, said to her, “Death is going to become you tonight. I am going to kill you.”
Case Summaries