Lesser Included Offenses

NYSentencing analyzes Lesser Included Offenses through its tables of included offenses, and through its Lesser Included Offense module, which constructs logical arguments for included offenses based on a database of offense elements.

Given an offense, the Lesser Included Offense module compares elements and finds offenses from the same Penal Law article whose elements are included in or implied by the elements of the given offense. In the resulting report, one can see the effect on the case should there be a failure to prove one or more elements of the charge. Full reports include a tightly reasoned automated argument showing the logical relationship between elements, with supporting legal citations for each step in the chain of reasoning.

Or, beginning with a given offense, the Greater Inclusory Offense module retrieves offenses from the same Penal Law article that include the given offense as a lesser included offense. The resulting report displays the effect of adding aggravating elements to the given offense.

Take a look at an example :