About Assault With a Deadly Weapon

Assault with a deadly weapon is normally one of the stronger forms of assault, according to some jurisdictions. If you ever find yourself a victim of this heinous crime, it's important to be familiar with the types of assault and the criteria that create a legal assault. It's also just as important to learn about some of the defenses a defendant may raise if faced with this charge.

General Definition

Assault with a deadly weapon is often categorized as an aggravated version of a general assault crime; it involves a weapon that may cause death or serious bodily injury, and is a crime of violence. The statutes may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but in general most states in the U.S. follow common law or the model penal code, which define this crime as follows:

"Assault itself is one of two things: 1) an attempt to commit a battery, or 2) the intentional creation of a reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily harm."

Attempt to Commit a Battery

An attempt to commit a battery is a specific intent crime, which means that the defendant must actually intent to commit a battery and not just purely frighten the victim. This also means that voluntary intoxication may be raised as a defense to this crime, although it is unlikely to prevail in most states.

The Intentional Creation of Apprehension

Apprehension is viewed from the perspective of the victim, and it does not necessarily constitute fear. A victim can feel apprehension and not actually be in fear of the criminal actor. It is important to note that the mere use of words is not enough to constitute an assault, but rather some sort of physical act must be involved. In addition, the apprehension must be imminent in the mind of the victim. If a criminal were to show a knife and say, "I will kill you next week," it would not be an assault. The second part of assault is a general intent crime, which means the defendant only needs to be aware that a crime is being committed.

Caveats

Note that if some sort of a touching does actually occur, or if the victim is actually hit by the weapon, the assault automatically becomes a battery and the defendant cannot normally be charged for both assault and battery if they occurred from the same set of acts. Additionally, a weapon for the purposes of these laws may be anything that can cause bodily harm. For example, a rubber band that can fling a deadly projectile can be a deadly weapon, as can be a vehicle, or a decorative statue used as a club or projectile.

Defenses

Some legal defenses to the crime include the following:
Consent: Although it is possible to argue consent by the victim, most jurisdictions do not allow the giving of consent to deadly battery.
Insanity: Insanity and involuntary intoxication are defenses to this crime.
Self defense and defense of others: Note that defense of property is not a legal defense in most jurisdictions because of the use of a deadly weapon. The value of one's life naturally prevails over the value of another's property.