Some mild crimes have been seen as far worse by the court because of the intent. All cases as overseen and built by a criminal law attorney in Williston ND area have two components. The first is the actual act of the crime. What was the action? The action creates the level at where the crime currently rests. It fits the crime into a category. But, the level of seriousness of the crime is not always measured directly by the act itself. There is a second component that addresses the seriousness of the crime, and what is going to be done about it. That second component is the intent. In law, it is often considered the mental state.
One of the most serious crimes one can commit is murder. The action is relatively black and white. Either the criminal committed murder, or he or she did not. But, the intent (mental state) delivers additional layers to the case. The resolution of the case is rarely clear. That is because of the mental state. Below are three examples with the same outcome: all are wildly different.
* An individual, intoxicated, murders someone at a bar after a terrible fistfight.
* A man walks into a bar and soberly murders a stranger.
* A man crashes his vehicle into a bar after being run off the ride by a careening trucker. He kills a guest.
All of these scenarios end the same basic way, but the path to get there varied. All of these scenarios require a different type of argument and defense based on “the mental state.”
All of the above is floating around one true reality about criminal law. A savvy Criminal Law Attorney in Williston ND will focus on the intent instead of the act. In the above example of murder, it is not always smart o build a case from whether the crime was committed at all. The true driving factor of the case was the mental state. Attorneys understand this distinction at a fundamental level. Reach out to a local Criminal Law Attorney to receive representation that reads the ebbs and flows of the court of law.
For more information, Contact Beardsley Jensen & Lee