Oregon v. Kyger
Annotate this CaseDuring a single criminal episode, defendant Scott Kyger cut the necks of two people with a razor blade. For that, the state charged him with two counts of attempted aggravated murder under ORS 163.095 (2015) and ORS 161.405 (2015). Defendant was convicted of both counts. The question his appeal raised for the Oregon Supreme Court's review was whether the state charged a viable theory of attempted aggravated murder. Defendant contended that the existence of “more than one murder victim” was a circumstance that had to exist for a person to be guilty of aggravated murder; that it did not exist here because neither victim died; and that defendant’s intentional conduct did not amount to attempted aggravated murder because a person could not “attempt” to commit a circumstance element of an offense. In defendant’s view, the allegations supported, at most, charges for attempted murder. The trial court and the Court of Appeals disagreed with defendant. Finding no reversible error in the trial or appellate courts' judgments, the Supreme Court affirmed.
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