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Torture

Torture Law in California - Penal Code 206 PC

The crime of torture is one of the most serious violent crimes in Los Angeles, California. When the prosecutors file this case, you can expect they are going to be asking for a lot of prison time. In fact, a lot of times there's life sentences attached to torture cases that are filed in Los Angeles County.

Torture Charges in California

When you're talking about torture, you're really inflicting great bodily injury on somebody – meaning someone for some sort of a very serious – usually a debilitating or permanent injury – on somebody and you're doing so because you're trying to exact revenge against that person, holding someone for ransom, trying to commit some sort of extortion activity in Los Angeles County.

So, if you or your loved ones are charged with this type of torture, then obviously you want to get a California criminal defense attorney who has been down this road before and handled these cases before and is familiar with the torture charge under California Penal Code Section 206.

There  and usually there are more other charges that 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 life – if they're able to – if they've got the firepower and the charges to be able to prove it.

What Are Some Defenses To Torture Penal Code 206?

One defense would be that you did not cause great bodily injury to somebody. There is a real specific definition of great bodily injury and it has to do with 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 actually did to cause it, that 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 type of extortion or any of the other reckless elements in order to prove the crime of torture.

Again, what we classically think of as torture – where you're basically inflicting pain on somebody intentionally, and really trying to hurt them, disfigurement them, and you're doing it for some sort of an elicit reason like extortion or to cause great bodily injury.

Your exacting some sort of revenge against them – maybe they testified against you or another person that you know, so these are the type of things that are going to be necessary in order to sustain a torture charge.

If the prosecutors cannot prove great bodily injury, if they can't prove that you're exacting some sort of revenge – maybe you have a self-defense claim. Maybe you have a defense of others claim. If you have a self-defense claim, then that could be a complete defense to a torture charge depending on the circumstances of the case.

Lawyer Review of Your Case Details

Most of these cases really hinge around what happened in the case, what the facts are or why the person was asking in a violent manner. 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 sort of property or do something that they want them to do or make them not do something. So, it really just depends on the circumstances surrounding the torture charge.

What you need to do is get in front of a great criminal defense attorney as quickly as possible – somebody who is local to the court where your case is pending and get them the details of the case.

Let them review the discovery and really 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 actually 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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