California Criminal Threats Law
California Penal Code 422
Section 422 of the California Penal Code makes it illegal to make criminal threats (formerly called " terrorist threats"). A criminal threat under California law is a threat of immediate harm made to another person when the defendant intends to, and does, cause fear in the person threatened.
The punishment or penalty for criminal threats in California is up to three years state prison. Criminal threats is also now considered a strike under California's three strikes law.
The Elements of the Crime of Criminal Threats
1. The defendant willfully threatened to unlawfully kill or unlawfully inflict great bodily injury on another person;
2. The defendant made the threat orally or in writing or by electronic communication device;
3. The defendant intended that the statement be understood as a threat and intended that it be received by the other person;
4. The threat was so clear, immediate, unconditional, and specific that it communicated to the other person a serious intention and the immediate prospect that the threat would be carried out;
5. The threat actually caused the other person to be in sustained fear for her or his own safety or for the safety of her or his immediate family;
AND
6. The other person's fear was reasonable under the circumstances.
o Someone commits an act willfully when he or she does it willingly or on purpose.
o In deciding whether a threat was sufficiently clear, immediate, unconditional, and specific, consider the words themselves, as well as the surrounding circumstances.
o Someone who intends that a statement be understood as a threat does not have to actually intend to carry out the threatened act (or intend to have someone else do so).
o Great bodily injury means significant or substantial physical injury. It is an injury that is greater than minor or moderate harm.
o Sustained fear means fear for a period of time that is more than momentary, fleeting, or transitory.
o If a threat is intended to and does induce a sustained fear, the person making the threat need not know whether the threat was actually received.
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