Joe and Bill Scenario 1

Joe and Bill Scenario: What crime was Committed?

CJ230-07: Criminal Law

Unit 5 Midterm Essays

Joe and Bill Scenario 2

Joe and Bill Scenario: What crime was committed?
Joe and Bill are coworkers at a factory. Bill is Joe’s supervisor. Bill has been
giving Joe a hard time about his being late for work every day for the past week.
On Saturday, they both join an impromptu company softball game. Joe is pitching,
and Bill is at bat. Joe accidentally hits Bill with the ball. Bill runs with the
bat shouting “I’m going to kill you, you lazy buffoon!” What is the most serious
crime Bill could be charged with? Discuss the elements of the crime and whether
all elements can be satisfied.

Bill is holding a bat, which is a weapon, and he is waving it at Joe while

threatening him. Bill has committed an aggravated assault. An aggravated assault
is an assault of a vicious nature including assaults with intent to commit a
serious offense or assaults with deadly or dangerous weapons. These assaults are
general intent crimes requiring no proof of intent to kill. If Bill is charged
with aggravated assault, it will be a felony instead of a misdemeanor. However, in
this scenario, there is no statement of whether or not Bill actually hit Joe after
threatening him. Depending on what happened next, the arresting officer or
prosecutor could let him plead to a lesser charge of simple assault or attempted
battery, but that would be up to their discretion and depend on the events after
this scenario left off. For the charge of assault or attempted battery, one does
not have to actually hit or hurt someone to be guilty of simple assault or
attempted battery. An assault is committed when one person attempts or tries to do
harm to another or acts in a threatening manner as to instill fear or intimidate
another person. Bill may not have actually hit Joe with the bat or anything else,
but he did cause Joe to fear immediate harm. Georgia law code lists assault as an
act which places another in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a
violent injury. (Section 16-5-20) Bill has not actually hit Joe in this scenario,
but he has acted in a threatening manner as
Joe and Bill Scenario 3
Joe and Bill Scenario: What crime was committed?
to intimidate Joe and place Joe in reasonable apprehension of immediately
receiving a violent injury, so he is guilty of assault.
Assault can be charged even when the victim has not been physically touched. In
this case, Bill has never touched Joe, and we don’t know that he ever did. We do
know, however, that Bill acted in a threatening manner to make Joe fearful of
receiving an immediate, violent injury. That constitutes an assault charge at the
very least. Therefore, all elements of assault have been satisfied, and Bill could
be charged with assault or attempted battery based on nothing more than the
information given in this scenario, or with aggravated assault depending on the
events afterward.

Joe and Bill Scenario 4

References
www.dictionary.law.com
www.findlaw.com
Georgia Unannotated Code, Section 16-5-20
Chamelin. N. (2003). Criminal Law for Police Officers
Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing