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Ala. Code § 13A-4-2

Attempt.

Known as the Alabama Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 13A-10-1 to 13A-9-92 (653 sections).

Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case Marsh v. Butler County (2001)

Most recently applied in United States v. Raymon Marquell Harris (October 2019)

(Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, §1005; Act 2023-461, §1.)

How often courts cite this section

1982199020002010201920
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime if, with the intent to commit a specific offense, he or she does any overt act towards the commission of the offense.

(b) It is no defense under this section that the offense charged to have been attempted was, under the attendant circumstances, factually or legally impossible of commission, if the offense could have been committed had the attendant circumstances been as the defendant believed them to be.

(c) A person is not liable under this section if, under circumstances manifesting a voluntary and complete renunciation of this criminal intent, he or she avoided the commission of the offense attempted by abandoning his or her criminal effort and, if mere abandonment is insufficient to accomplish such avoidance, by taking further and affirmative steps that prevented the commission thereof. The burden of injecting this issue is on the defendant, but this does not shift the burden of proof.

(d) An attempt is a:

(1) Class A felony if the offense attempted is murder.

(2) Class B felony if the offense attempted is a Class A felony.

(3) Class C felony if the offense attempted is a Class B felony.

(4) Class D felony if the offense attempted is a Class C felony.

(5) Class A misdemeanor if the offense attempted is a Class D felony.

(6) Class B misdemeanor if the offense attempted is a Class A misdemeanor.

(7) Class C misdemeanor if the offense attempted is a Class B misdemeanor.

(8) Violation if the offense attempted is a Class C misdemeanor.

Official source: Alabama Legislature (ALISON). Reproduced from public-domain Alabama statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.