Minnesota Battery Defense Lawyer
At common law, simple battery is a misdemeanor and the elements of the offense are:
The prosecutor must prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt. The common law elements serve as a basic template, but individual jurisdictions may alter them and they may vary slightly from state to state.
Under modern statutory schemes, battery is often broken down into gradations for the purposes of determining the severity of punishment. For example:
Simple battery may include any form of non-consensual, harmful or insulting contact, regardless of the injury caused. Criminal battery requires an intent to inflict an injury on another, as distinguished from a tortious battery.
Sexual battery may be defined as non-consensual touching of the intimate parts of another.
Family violence battery may be limited in its scope between persons within a certain degree of relationship: statutes with respect to this offense have been enacted in response to increasing awareness of the problem of domestic violence.
Aggravated battery is generally regarded as a serious offense of felony grade, involving the loss of the victim’s limb or some other type of permanent disfigurement of the victim. As successor to the common law crime of mayhem, this is sometimes subsumed in the definition of aggravated assault.
In some jurisdictions, battery has recently been constructed to include directing bodily secretions at another person without their permission. In some jurisdictions this automatically is considered aggravated battery.
In some jurisdictions, the charge of criminal battery also requires evidence of a mental state (mens rea).
