Aggravated Battery
What is Battery?
Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault which is the act of creating apprehension of such contact.
Battery charge is a specific common law misdemeanor, although the term is used more generally to refer to any unlawful offensive physical contact with another person, and may be a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the circumstances. Battery was defined at common law as "any unlawful and or unwanted touching of the person of another by the aggressor, or by a substance put in motion by him. In more severe cases, and for all types in some jurisdictions, it is chiefly defined by statutory wording. Assessment of the severity of a battery is determined by local law.
What is Aggravated Battery:
A criminal battery — a physical act that results in harmful or offensive contact with another's person without that person's consent — involving an additional, aggravating factor, such as the infliction of serious bodily injury or the use of a dangerous weapon.
Simple and Aggravated Battery:
Simple battery is the least serious form of battery and usually involves only minor injury, if any, and usually is a petty misdemeanor. Aggravated battery involves circumstances that make the crime more serious and usually is charged as a full misdemeanor or as a felony.
Examples of aggravated battery include:
· striking a person with a weapon or dangerous object
· shooting a person with a gun
· battery resulting in temporary disfigurement
· battery resulting in permanent disfigurement or other serious physical injury, and
· battery against a member of a protected class, such as a police officer, healthcare provider, social services worker, or developmentally disabled or elderly person.
Defenses:
Defendants charged with aggravated battery have the usual defenses available to all defendants, starting with “You’ve got the wrong person, it wasn’t me.” In addition, a defendant can claim self defense or defense of others and present evidence that the defendant was defending himself or another person from an attack by the alleged victim. That defense may involve showing that a weapon actually was in the victim’s possession or that the victim struck the first blow.
Other possible defenses are that the defendant’s actions were purely accidental and that he had no criminal intent; or an insanity defense – that the defendant is mentally ill and did not have the capacity to control his behavior or to understand what he was doing or that his actions were unlawful.
