California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Croutch, B237227 (Cal. App. 2013):
A threat to commit a crime that will result in great bodily injury is not criminal unless it conveys "an immediate prospect of execution of the threat." ( 422.) Defendant argues at length that he could not have immediately assaulted defendant while handcuffed in the back of a police car separated by a steel screen from the heavily armed deputy. Defendant correctly deduces that he could not have immediately carried out his threat. However, when a threat is conditioned upon a future event such as the removal of handcuffs, the requirement of section 422 that the threat convey an "immediate prospect of execution" does not mean that the defendant must have an immediate ability to carry it out. (People v. Lopez, supra, 74 Cal.App.4th at p. 679.) Further, the specific intent required by section 422 is not necessarily an intent to immediately carry out the threatened crime; it is an intent that the victim receive and understand the threat. (People v. Wilson (2010) 186 Cal.App.4th 789, 806.) Nor must the threat "communicate a time or precise manner of execution." (Ibid.)
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