United States v. Thomas

(concurring in part and dissenting in part) :

Professor Jerome Hall traces the difficulty in analyzing the defense of impossibility in criminal attempts to Baron Bramwell’s original use of illustrative fact situations “from Never-Never Land” in Regina v Collins, 9 Cox CC 497, 169 Eng Rep 1477 (1864). Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law, 2d ed, page 693. am inclined to attribute it to a growing tendency on the part of legal theoreticians to attach more importance to the evilness of a man’s intent than to his acts — a belief, if you will, that the law should punish sinful thoughts if…