New Jersey Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

As I wrote in yesterday's attempted murder related post, attempted murder is not an easy charge for the Prosecutor to prove in New Jersey. Consequently, a defense attorney can often negotiate a better deal with the Prosecutor or defend the case at trial when an attempted murder charge is the primary crime charged against a defendant.

Why would a Prosecutor be willing to negotiate? The answer is simple - attempted murder is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, charge to prove. The Prosecutor would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused's sole purpose in striking, stabbing or shooting another was to kill them. Often times, however, an accused wildly attacks another while enraged - acting recklessly - but certainly not purposely which is required to prove the charge.

Do not get me wrong, there are some attempted murder cases that the Prosecutor will have a much easier time proving. Where the alleged victim has been stabbed or shot multiple times and left unconscious, the Prosecutor will be able to effectively argue that the accused believed he accomplished his purpose when he left the scene. But most cases fall into a gray area. The accused may react to a situation without pre-meditation and on the spur of the moment - perhaps instinctively striking another causing serious injury but without a purpose to kill. If a an alleged victim is walking and talking after an attack while the accused flees the scene, it certainly would appear as if the accused's purpose was not to kill.

Continue reading "Attempted Murder in New Jersey - Not Always Easy to Prove" »

A Monmouth County New Jersey defendant has recently been charged with attempted murder, two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon and making terroristic threats in connection with an attack on three corrections officers in the Monmouth County Jail on Monday August 24, 2009, according to APP.com . The defendant, incarcerated on an unrelated Eluding charge, allegedly stabbed the officers with a homemade shank (knife) as they entered his cell to fix a broken light. All of the Officers were treated for their injuries at Jersey Shore University Hospital in Neptune and released.

The attempted murder charge , although not always easy to prove, carries a ten to twenty year New Jersey State Prison sentence with a lenghty period of parole ineligibility (85% of the sentence). (read more about attempted murder in my 8-27-09 post). Certainly, the length of the sentence on that charge, alone, is going to have to be factored into any plea negotiations by the defendant and his attorney.

There are two added bonuses in this case, however, that the the accused and his attorney are going to have to consider during plea negotiations and discuss at length. The New Jersey sentencing statute (N.J.S.A. 2C: 44-5h. and i.) requires that the plea offer for his new jail related charges include a prison term to run consecutively to his pending charges because the defendant already had the pending charges when he allegedly committed this offense. Also, any assault by an inmate on a corrections officer requires that his prison sentence be run consecutive to the prison sentence on his pending charges (the Eluding) and to any other charge related to the jail assault.

To put this in real terms, the plea offer from the Prosecutor in this case will, in all likelihood, require that the accused's sentence for each separate case will run consecutively. So, for example, even if he were offered the minimum 5 years on the eluding and the minimum 10 years on the attempted murder, his sentence would be 15 years. Had the above example reflected concurrent time, his plea offer would be a 10 year sentence because the 5 years on the Eluding would run at the same time (concurrent) as the 10 years for the attempted murder.

Continue reading "Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault in Monmouth County Jail - Consecutive Sentencing in New Jersey" »