§ 13A-4-1 — Criminal Solicitation

(a)(1) A person is guilty of criminal solicitation if, with the intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a crime, he or she solicits, requests, commands or importunes another person to engage in such conduct.
(2)
A person may not be convicted of criminal solicitation upon the uncorroborated testimony of the person allegedly solicited, and there must be proof of circumstances corroborating both the solicitation and the defendant’s intent.
(b) A person is not liable under this section if, under circumstances manifesting a voluntary and complete renunciation of his
or her
criminal intent, he
or she
(1) notified the person solicited of his
or her
renunciation and (2) gave timely and adequate warning to the law enforcement authorities or otherwise made a substantial effort to prevent the commission of the criminal conduct solicited. The burden of injecting this issue is on the defendant, but this does not shift the burden of proof.
(c) A person is not liable under this section when his
or her
solicitation constitutes conduct of a kind that is necessarily incidental to the commission of the offense solicited. When the solicitation constitutes an offense other than criminal solicitation
that
is related to but separate from the offense solicited,
the
defendant is guilty of
the
related offense only and not of criminal solicitation.
(d) It is no defense to a prosecution for criminal solicitation that the person solicited could not be guilty of the offense solicited because of
any of the following
:
(1) Criminal irresponsibility or other legal incapacity or exemption
.
(2) Unawareness of the criminal nature of the conduct solicited or of the defendant’s criminal purpose
.
(3) Any other factor precluding the mental state required for the commission of the offense in question.
(e) It is no defense to a prosecution for criminal solicitation that
the
defendant belongs to a class of persons who by definition are legally incapable in an individual capacity of committing the offense that he
or she
solicited another to commit.
(f) Criminal solicitation is a:
(1) Class A felony if the offense solicited is murder.
(2) Class B felony if the offense solicited is a Class A felony.
(3) Class C felony if the offense solicited is a Class B felony.
(4) Class D felony if the offense solicited is a Class C felony.
(5)
Class A misdemeanor if the offense solicited is a Class
D
felony.
(6)
Class B misdemeanor if the offense solicited is a Class A misdemeanor.
(7)
Class C misdemeanor if the offense solicited is a Class B misdemeanor.
(8)
Violation if the offense solicited is a Class C misdemeanor.

Legislative History

(Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, §1001; Act 2023-461, §1.)