Does the rule of leniency in an assault under section 664(a) of the California Criminal Code apply to an individual who has committed an act of violence against another person?

[3 Cal.Rptr.3d 413]

The rule of lenity is inapplicable unless the statute in question is ambiguous, meaning susceptible of two reasonable meanings that "`stand in relative equipoise....' " (People v. Avery (2002) 27 Cal.4th 49, 58, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 403, 38 P.3d 1, quoting People v. Jones (1988) 46 Cal.3d 585, 599, 250 Cal.Rptr. 635, 758 P.2d 1165.) A reading of section 664(a) reflects the absence of any requirement of personal willfulness, deliberation, and premeditation on the part of an attempted murderer, inasmuch as section 664(a)'s language is passive and imposes a requirement only as to the attempted murderthat it be willful, deliberate, and premeditatedand nothing as to the attempted murderer. In light of that language, it is difficult to discern the presence of any requirement of personal willfulness, deliberation, and premeditation on the part of an attempted murderer. In any event, a reading requiring personal willfulness, deliberation, and premeditationeven if reasonabledoes not stand in relative equipoise with a reading not imposing such a requirement.

[3 Cal.Rptr.3d 413]