Law Commons^™

Attempt, Merger, And Transferred Intent, Nancy Ehrenreich

Brooklyn Law Review

Recent years have seen a dramatic expansion in the transferred-intent doctrine via rulings involving attempt liability. In its basic form, transferred intent allows an intentional actor with bad aim who kills an unintended victim (instead of the intended target) to be punished for murder. Today, some courts allow conviction in such situations not only of transferred intent murder as to the actual victim, but of attempted murder of the intended victim as well. Critics of this expansion (as well as other similar variations) have argued that it distorts the meaning of transferred intent and imposes liability disproportionate to culpability. Little …