California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Padilla, A141223 (Cal. App. 2017):
An offense alleged in an accusatory pleading "may necessarily include one or more lesser offenses. . . . [A] lesser offense is necessarily included in a greater offense if either the statutory elements of the greater offense, or the facts actually alleged in the accusatory pleading, include all the elements of the lesser offense, such that the greater cannot be committed without also committing the lesser. [Citations.]" (People v. Birks (1998) 19 Cal.4th 108, 117, fn. omitted.) A trial court must instruct, sua sponte, on "all theories of a lesser included offense which find substantial support in the evidence. On the other hand, the court is not obliged to instruct on theories that have no such evidentiary support. . . . [] . . . [T]he existence of 'any evidence, no matter how weak,' will not justify instructions on a lesser included offense, but such instructions are required whenever evidence that the defendant is guilty only of the lesser offense is 'substantial enough to merit consideration' by the jury. [Citations.]" (People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 162.)
"As a general matter, an attempt to commit a crime is a lesser included offense of the completed crime. ' "[T]here is no reason in the nature of things why a defendant may not be guilty of an attempt to commit a crime without being guilty of the crime attempted to be perpetrated." ' " (People v. Ngo (2014) 225 Cal.App.4th 126, 156 (Ngo).) However, this law is " 'complex and fraught with intricacies and doctrinal divergences.' [Citation.]" (People v. Bailey (2012) 54 Cal.4th 740, 753.) Section 21a provides, " 'An attempt to commit a crime consists of two elements: a specific intent to commit the crime, and a direct but ineffectual act done toward its commission.' " "As a
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