Terrorist Threats

If you have been arrested and charged with PC 422 you are dealing with a serious charge which will be decided by the credibility of the defendant and the alleged victim.  PC 422 was originally established to help stop witness intimidation usually in gang related cases.  Now it is being used for idle threats which occur in everyday life. THE LAW OFFICES OF ARCHER & ASSOCIATES has been sucessful in defending clients on criminal threat charges. If you or a loved one has been arrested and charged with criminal threats, contact our office so that Mr. Archer can use is experience, and novel legal defenses to help defend you.      

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.

• Someone commits an act willfully when he or she does it willingly or on purpose.
• In deciding whether a threat was sufficiently clear, immediate, unconditional, and specific, consider the words themselves, as well as the surrounding circumstances.
• 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).
• Great bodily injury means significant or substantial physical injury. It is an injury that is greater than minor or moderate harm.
• Sustained fear means fear for a period of time that is more than momentary, fleeting, or transitory.
• 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.