IANAL

[burgundy]

But I can't help wondering if, when you are on trial for the attempted murder of your fiance, arguing that you only meant to scare her, not kill her, when you tasered her, tied her up, stuffed her in a cardboard box, and buried her head-down, will actually help your case all that much.

Comments

[kimatha]

Technically, the defense is probably trying to cast reasonable doubt on the intent element of attempted murder. It's probably all they have, because I'm guessing the evidence that the defendants did it is overwhelming.

But you're right that it doesn't help that much, because generally intent doesn't just mean that a person intended to cause a result. It also means that the person knew that a particular result would likely happen, even when they don't intend that result. And if you tie someone up and bury them, it's pretty likely that they're going to die from that.

[eyelid]

it'll probably help just about as much as anything else will help them at this point.