Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Parents often talk about how hard it is to see a child through their teen years, and a father from Niceville, Florida would probably agree with that assessment after he had to call the police on his fifteen year-old son after a family dispute became (kind of) dangerous. The two were reportedly arguing about the son being grounded when the father demanded the son hand over his iPod. The kid refused and reportedly grabbed a spoon “in a knife-like hold” with which to threaten his dad. Fearing for his life, the father called the cops. He was charged with criminal mischief.

The notable thing about this story from a criminal law standpoint is that the son was described as grabbing a spoon in a “knife-like hold” according to the arrest report. Tennessee law, and the law of most other states, has not set a bright-line rule that defines exactly what is and what is not a deadly weapon for purposes of the criminal code. The definition of a “deadly weapon” in the Tennessee code includes “[a]nything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.” Thus, the definition literally encompasses any object in the world, as it is technically possible to kill someone with a piece of paper or a cotton swab if used in the appropriate manner. Whether something actually qualifies as a “deadly weapon” for purposes of the criminal code, then, will often depend on the circumstances.

In this situation, the classification of the way the spoon was held would indicate that the police possibly considered the spoon as a deadly weapon. This classification can be extremely important, because use of a deadly weapon greatly enhances the classification and punishment of certain criminal offenses. For example, robbery is a Class C felony in Tennessee, punishable by three to fifteen years in prison. Use or display of a deadly weapon during a robbery, however, automatically escalates the charge to aggravated robbery, a Class B felony that is punishable by eight to thirty years in prison.

It is clear, then, that whether or not the defendant uses an object that is considered a deadly weapon can play a large role in a criminal trial. The bad news for defendants is that there is no set rule for what specific objects can constitute a deadly weapon. The good news, however, for defendants who use borderline objects, such as forks or spoons, is that a skilled criminal defense attorney can argue from the circumstances surrounding the offense that the object was not intended to be a deadly weapon and was not used as such.

Source: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/boy-25379-son-police.html