§ 120.10 Assault in the first degree.\n A person is guilty of assault in the first degree when:\n 1. With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he\ncauses such injury to such person or to a third person by means of a\ndeadly weapon or a dangerous instrument; or\n 2. With intent to disfigure another person seriously and permanently,\nor to destroy, amputate or disable permanently a member or organ of his\nbody, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person; or\n 3. Under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life,\nhe recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to\nanother person, and thereby causes serious physical injury to another\nperson; or\n 4. In the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempted\ncommission of a felony or of immediate flight therefrom, he, or another\nparticipant if there be any, causes serious physical injury to a person\nother than one of the participants.\n Assault in the first degree is a class B felony.\n
N.Y. Penal Law § 120.10
Assault in the first degree
Applied in 179 court decisions — leading case People v. Cahill
Most recently applied in Doe v. Hochul (June 2025)
2014-09-22
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: NYS Open Legislation (New York State Senate). Reproduced from public-domain New York statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.