Homicide

Attempted murder

There is attempted murder (664/187), which is punishable by 5-7-9. Some, including Californian courts, have called this second-degree attempted murder.

There is also attempted murder, which is willful, deliberate, and premediated (664/187/189), which is 7-to-life. Some, including Californian courts, have called this first-degree attempted murder.

The California Supreme Court in People v. Bright (1996) 12 Cal.4th 652, has explicitly said there are no degrees of attempted murder, just an enhanced punishment for willful, deliberate, and premeditated attempted murder. This supposedly made a difference because the Court in Bright said a jury finds whether there has been attempted murder or not, and not the "degree" of attempted murder. But, the Court later said in People v. Seel (2004) 34 Cal.4th 535, Apprendi applies to this, so a jury does need to find a fact that increases the sentence, and thus a jury does need to determine if it's been willful, deliberate, and premeditated.

Delay of death

Penal code section 194

To make the killing either murder or manslaughter, it is not requisite that the party die within three years and a day after the stroke received or the cause of death administered. If death occurs beyond the time of three years and a day, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the killing was not criminal. The prosecution shall bear the burden of overcoming this presumption. In the computation of time, the whole of the day on which the act was done shall be reckoned the first.