Deborah Denno was quoted in a Washington Post article about a man being charged with attempted murder after a hammer attack on a mannequin decoy.
Laws in most states take into account what a defendant is thinking at the time of a crime, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who authored a recent article about defendants and criminal intent.
“You can’t murder a mannequin,” Denno agreed. “But if the facts were as he believed them to be, he would have been bashing the head of a human being.”