"Serious Bodily Injury" in Aggravated Assault Cases

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals recently made life a little tougher for criminal defendants and defense attorneys by ruling that "intentional or knowing" mental requirement that is present in the assault and aggravated assault statutes does not apply to the element of "serious bodily injury" that is required for an aggravated assault conviction. In a case called State v. Jones, the Court ruled that the statute was written in such a way that to be convicted of aggravated assault, defendants did not have to know or intend that their actions would cause "serious bodily injury" to the victim; rather, it was enough that the defendant simply intended to cause some type of bodily injury and that serious bodily injury did occur.

Under this interpretation, a defendant could simply attempt to step on someone's toe and still be charged with aggravated assault if their action causes the person to hop around and fall off the sidewalk into the road and get struck by a car, resulting in serious bodily injuries. Unfortunately for defendants, this appears to be the correct interpretation of the aggravated assault statute given the way it is written. The more fair approach would probably be to require that the defendant know or intend to cause "serious" bodily injury in order to be convicted of aggravated assault, thus further separating the requisite mental state for ordinary assault and its aggravated counterpart. That, however, would seem to be an issue for the state legislature, as the Court of Criminal Appeals appears to have interpreted the statute correctly under the maxims of statutory interpretation.

Many criminal statutes, like the one discussed in this blog, are worded in ways that do not always make clear to attorneys, defendants, or anyone else how the statute applies in specific situations. Contact an experienced criminal defense attorney today to obtain some clarity with regard to the charges you are facing.