State v. Reeves
Supreme Court of Tennessee
916 S.W.2d 909 (1996)
Relevant factsFree
Tracie Reeves and Molly Coffman (defendants), twelve-year-old classmates, agreed by phone to kill their homeroom teacher, Janice Geiger, with rat poison. The next morning, Coffman brought rat poison to school and told a classmate of the plan, who alerted school officials; the teacher then noticed the girls leaning over her desk, where they left a purse containing rat poison next to her coffee cup. Both girls were convicted of attempted second-degree murder and appealed, arguing they were never close enough to completing the offense to be guilty of attempt.
IssueFree
Whether a defendant is guilty of attempt only if the defendant was on the brink of completing the offense.