My best friend is 17 and being charged with attempted murder, what can I expect?

Victoria's Secret Revealed

I think you should worry more about what HE is to expect.
Your friend used no common sense whatsoever. Being on school grounds makes it worse. Most likely he can/will be expelled. Doesn't matter if it was a dull butter knife, if he used a pencil he could still face the same consequence.
Is this is first offense with the law?
I highly doubt they will slap him with an attempted murder charge or even be charged as an adult.
Worse case scenario, he will be charged with fifth degree assault, a misdemeanor. He can also be given a fine.
Most likely scenario, he will get probation and his parents will be slapped with a fine. Depending on the judge, he may also force your friend to take anger management classes and do community service.

Also, it depends on your state as well. Every state varies. This is just a generic answer based on what my laws are in my state.

Fee_Slice

I find it hard to believe that your friend was charged with attempted murder. Menacing, yes. Harrassment and threats, sure. But attempted murder? No way. Stop making up stories.

From Wikipedia:

Attempted murder requires evidence of an intention to kill, unlike murder, which requires an intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. This makes it a difficult allegation to sustain and careful consideration must be given to whether on the facts a more appropriate charge would be section 18 (wounding or causing grievous bodily harm with intent) Offences Against the Person Act 1861. Another possible charge may be Section 16, Offences Against the Person Act 1861 making threats to kill.

James R

I have never heard of anything like this in my life. I have never seen someone get convicted (especially a 17 year old) of attempted murder when the person didn't even touch the victim.

Most people don't even get attempted murder when they beat someone within an inch of death, and this case there was technically no violence even involved. I highly doubt that anything will come of this, unless there is more to the story that you don't know.

Bounty Hunter

sounds like your friend is a moron.. as many people piss me off on a daily basis, I don't whip out my pistol and threaten to kill them with it.. see joking or not, think before you act.. Stuff like that is not taken lightly, and it is a weapon none the less, and on school property (cuz a bus is an extension of the school so to say.) his best hope is get a good lawyer, and hope to god she refuses to do anything about it being as she is the 'victim' here.. always think before you act!

Katrina L

It really Depends on where you are & what your local laws have to say on the subject, he'll probably just get probation & have to go to counseling. You should volunteer to be a witness if you saw the even go down. It sounds like her parents overreacted in a big way!

Try talking to them about the situation & see what their stance is & why they took it so far, perhaps they will reconsider if they know the truth.

Mr G

Why is he even carrying a knife around with him anyway? And threatening a girl with a knife just because she was annoying him? Your friend sounds like a complete psychopath nutcase, Everytime someone annoys you is no reason to pull a knife out and threaten them with it, Its not the way I would imagine a sane person to act, You need to stay away from this so called best friend or if you think he was justified in pulling the knife out then your as bad as he is, I hope he gets jailed for a very long time

Jill

pretty much any time a guy goes after a girl in a threatening way, he's screwed, regardless of what really happened.

PrestoDigito

It's hard to say. Each state varies tremendously on the standard sentences for violent crimes.

You may be called as a witness during the trial. Do your best to state the facts as you remember them, and don't lie - if the prosecution or the judge finds inconsistencies in your testimony (which invariably happens when one lies) then you're only hurting your friends' chances.

I hope your friend only gets probation or a suspended sentence, as jail could be very traumatic for a 17-year-old... especially an adult facility!

At the very least, this will teach you guys that "clowning around" using weapons of any type, even a dull butter knife...well, just isn't funny.

Its a wonderful life.

Make sure he keeps his mouth shut. Says nothing to the police until he contacts a lawyer. Remember, its only one persons word against another. If there were few witnesses. Just lie, and say he never threatened her with a butter knife. Make sure you get your **** down. They will cross question you and ask you the exact same question, just in a different way. To see if your lying. So when you and your friend come up with that lie. You better remember it like it happened yesterday. Also, how the hell is he being charged for attempted murder. He didn't even touch her with the weapon. This is our justice system for ya. Back asswards and corrupt as ****.

Edit- Its justifiable to get revenge if you know what I mean :)

Eye for a for a fingernail, there head for my tooth. Thats how I see it. Most people aren't worthy of living anyways.

Meh

I'd guess that you could expect your friend to get a rectal resizing in prison.

Alex M

lol wow

ridge63

This is kind of like saying, " My best friend robbed a bank but gee all he did was use a plastic pistol and nobody got hurt shouldn't he be allowed to keep the money."

It doesn't matter that the knife was dull and no one got hurt your friend threatened someone's life with a lethal weapon. He needs to go to jail.

Magenta

Hopefully he has a good lawyer and if the girl he jokingly threatened testifies and admits she was laughing and it was all joking around and the knife is really dull, like embarrassingly dull and can be brought in as evidence then it's likely that your friends might get lucky and just end up getting a scolding from the judge, and the case thrown out,nothing more. Oh and if that happens her parents will also get a scolding for wasting the courts time. Your town/city needs sometime better to do with it's time if this all happened the way you say it did and they are actually bothering to charge him (as an adult at that).

kazwinsper@live.co.uk

my son is currently on remand for attempted murder his partner got a knife but he tried to stop her falling out of a front door an for one split second forgot he had the knife in his hand and stabbed her in the shoulder they had had a domestic and he admitts pushing her and she fell onto the bath causing her to have a fractured eye socket and a fractured rib there were no witnesses but she was drunk and cannot rember getting the knife wat sentence should he expect

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