That in effect was the question presented in the recent N.C. Supreme Court decision in State v. Melton (Dec. 7, 2018), where the court vacated an attempted murder conviction in a murder-for-hire case. Before getting into the case, let’s review the elements of solicitation and attempt. Solicitation is the counseling, enticing, or inducing of another to commit a crime with intent that the person solicited will complete the crime. State v. Davis, 110 N.C. App. 272 (1993). The crime is complete with the solicitation; it matters not whether the person asked agrees to commit the crime or whether the crime is actually committed. State v. Keen, 25 N.C. App. 567 (1975). Attempt, on the other hand, requires the specific intent to commit the crime and the performance of an overt act that goes beyond mere preparation but fails to accomplish the intended crime. State v. Miller, 344 N.C. 658 (1996). Regarding the requirement of an overt act, the Miller court noted: In order to constitute an attempt, it is essential that the defendant, with the intent of committing the particular crime, should have done some overt act adapted to, approximating, and which in the ordinary and likely course of things would result in the commission thereof. . . . It must not be merely preparatory. In other words, while it need not be the last proximate act to the consummation of the offense attempted to be perpetrated, it must approach sufficiently near to it to stand either as the first or [...]
Faculty Coordinators
