Editing Inchoate offense (section)

==Defenses==
A number of defenses are possible to the charge of an inchoate offense, depending on the jurisdiction and the nature of the offense.<ref>{{Cite web |title=inchoate offense |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/inchoate_offense |access-date=2022-10-18 |website=LII / Legal Information Institute |language=en}}</ref>

===Impossibility===
{{main|Impossibility defense}}
Impossibility is no defense to the crime of attempt where the conditions creating the impossibility are unknown to the actor.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strahorn |first=John S. |date=1930 |title=The Effect of Impossibility on Criminal Attempts |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3307577 |journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register |volume=78 |issue=8 |pages=962–998 |doi=10.2307/3307577 |issn=0749-9833|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Originally at common law, impossibility was a complete defense;<ref>''See'' James Fitzjames Stephen, ''A History of the Criminal Law of England'', Vol. II, 225 (1883)</ref>  as it was under French law at one point.<ref>''See'' Adolphe Chauveau, [[Faustin Hélie]], ''Théorie du Code Pénal'' 382-3 (1843)</ref>  Indeed, the ruling in ''Collins's Case'' L. and C. 471 was that an offender cannot be guilty of an attempt to steal his own umbrella when he mistakenly believes that it belongs to another.  Although the "moral guilt" for the attempt and the actual crime were the same, there was a distinction between the harm caused by a theft and the harmlessness of an impossible act.<ref>James Stephen at 225.</ref>  This principle was directly overruled in England with the rulings ''R v Ring'' and ''R v. Brown''<ref>66 L.T. (N.S) 300, and 24 Q.B.D. 357.</ref>  The example from ''R v Brown'' of an attempt to steal from an empty pocket is now a classic example of illustrating the point that impossibility is no defense to the crime of attempt when the conditions creating the impossibility are unknown to the actor.  This principle has been codified in the [[Model Penal Code]]:
<blockquote>
A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime if, acting with the kind of culpability otherwise required for commission of the crime he: purposely engages in conduct which would constitute the crime ''if the attendant circumstances were as he believes them to be.'' MPC § 5.01 (1)(a) (emphasis added).
</blockquote>

Consequently, the principle is universal in the United States either in Model Penal Code jurisdictions (40 states) or those remaining common law jurisdictions influenced by the reasoning in ''R v Brown''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Model Penal Code |url=http://individual.utoronto.ca/dubber/web/website/inchoate/Model_Penal_Code.htm |access-date=2022-10-18 |website=individual.utoronto.ca}}</ref>

Other cases that illustrate the case law for [[impossibility defense]]s are ''[[People v. Lee Kong]]'' (CA, 1892), ''[[State v. Mitchell]]'' (MO, 1902), and ''[[United States v. Thomas (1962)]]''.

===Abandonment===
A defendant may plead and prove, as an affirmative defense, that they:

* Stopped all actions in furtherance of the crime or conspiracy
* Tried to stop the crime as it was ongoing
* Tried to convince the co-conspirators to halt such actions, or reported the crime to the police or other authorities