Torture Law in California - Penal Code 206 PC
California Penal Code 206 PC defines the crime of torture as inflicting great bodily injury on a victim with the intent to cause extreme pain or suffering for the purpose of revenge, persuasion, or any sadistic aim. This is a felony offense, carrying severe penalties including life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
PC 206 says, "Every person who, with the intent to cause cruel or extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion, or for any sadistic purpose, inflicts great bodily injury as defined in Section 12022.7 upon the person of another, is guilty of torture."
The crime of torture does not require any proof that the victim suffered pain.
The crime of torture is one of the most severe violent crimes in Los Angeles, California. When the prosecutors file this case, you can expect they will ask for much prison time. A lot of times t, there are life sentences attached to torture cases that are filed in Los Angeles County.
When you're talking about torture, you're inflicting significant bodily injury on somebody – meaning someone for some severe – usually a debilitating or permanent injury – on somebody. You're doing so because you're trying to exact revenge against that person, holding someone for ransom, attempting to commit some extortion activity in Los Angeles County.
If you or your loved ones are charged with torture, it's crucial to seek the expertise of a California criminal defense attorney who has experience with these cases. A strong legal defense is essential in such serious matters.
There and usually more other charges go along with the torture charge in Los Angeles County. I've tried a lot of cases throughout the last twenty-five years, and if somebody is charged with torture, they usually have other serious felonies pending against them, and most of the time.
The prosecutors are attempting to put them away for the rest of their lives – if they're able to – if they've got the firepower and the charges to be able to prove it.
What Are the Defenses?
Potential defenses can be used in a torture case, providing hope in what may seem like a dire situation. One defense would be that you did not cause significant bodily injury to somebody. Substantial physical injury has a specific definition, which involves causing a very severe injury.
Sometimes, people's injuries are not as severe as they're claiming. Sometimes, they had pre-existing injuries. So, depending on the extent of the injury and what you did to cause it will determine whether or not you've met the element of that particular allegation related to torture.
Another defense, when it comes to torture, has to do with there not being any extortion or any of the other reckless elements to prove the crime of torture.
Again, what we classically think of as torture – where you're inflicting pain on somebody intentionally and trying to hurt them, disfigurement them, and you're doing it for some elicit reason like extortion or to cause significant bodily injury.
You're exacting some revenge against them – maybe they testified against you or another person that you know, so these are the types of things that are going to be necessary to sustain a torture charge.
If the prosecutors cannot prove significant bodily injury, if they can't prove that you're exacting some revenge – maybe you have a self-defense claim. Perhaps you have a defense of others' claims. If you have a self-defense claim, that could be a complete defense to a torture charge, depending on the circumstances of the case.
Most of these cases hinge on what happened in the case, the facts, or why the person was asking violently. Were they trying to defend themselves?
Or were they trying to do something like exact revenge against another person to extort money from another person, to get another person to give them some property or do something they want them to do, or make them not do something? So, it just depends on the circumstances surrounding the torture charge.
It would be best to get in front of a great criminal defense attorney as quickly as possible—somebody local to the court where your case is pending—and give them the case details.
Let them review the discovery and get down to the nitty-gritty of whether this is a torture case in Los Angeles or whether this is a different situation where you can defend yourself or mitigate it down to something less serious, which is crucial when it comes to damage control in a torture case in Los Angeles.
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