# Attempt - R v Donnelly [1970] NZLR 980 (CA) Turner J said at 990-991: - A person setting out to commit a crime may fall short of the complete commission of that offence. 1. A person can change their mind before committing any act sufficiently overt to amount to an attempt. 2. A person might change their mind, but it's too late to deny that they had gotten so far as for it to form an attempt. 3. A person might be prevented by some outside agency (force) from doing some act necessary to complete the commission of the crime (e.g. police interrupting them). 4. A person may fail to complete the commission of the crime due to ineptitude, inefficiency or insufficient means (e.g. a tool like a jemmy broke in their attempt to break open a door). 5. A person may discover that what he is proposing to do is impossible because of some type of physical reason (e.g. goes to steal a ring but that ring is already missing). 6. A person might do everything they set out to do, but would be saved from criminal liability by the fact that what he has done does not amount to a crime. - Preparation will not be considered an attempt if not sufficiently proximate to the crime. - In Hope v Brown [1954] 1 WLR 250 a butcher prepared over-priced tickets, put in a drawer intending to mark meat. Charges were dismissed and appeal was dismissed as well. - The proximity test; being that the accused has done an actus reus which is a step towards the commission of the specific crime; and the doing of which cannot be reasonably regarded as having any other purpose. - As in Davey v Lee [1968] 1 QB 366 - As in R v Collingridge (1976) 16 SASR 117 at 140-141, Zelling J said: - An accused cannot be convicted of an attempt if it is impossible of law to convict him of the completed offence. - It is however, possible to convict him of an attempt where the impossibility is a factual and not a legal one. - One exception to the rule, where the act which has not been done so that the offence remains uncompleted is itself an essential element in the completed offence, then the accused is not guilty. - An attempt may not be open if: - Attempt to commit an offence whose element is negligence or recklessness such as involuntary manslaughter; or - Attempt to aid, abet, counsel or procure; or - Attempt to commit a crime if there is an omission such as concealment, misprision or compounding; or - Attempt to commit an inchoate crime whose element is attempt or attempt to conspire; or - Attempt to commit a summary offence.