Battery Lawyer Southern Illinois

What Is Battery in Southern Illinois?

Battery is one of the oldest violent crimes covered by U.S. laws. In American common law, battery occurred when one party intentionally touched someone else in a harmful or offensive way. The common law defined assault as deliberately causing someone to fear an imminent battery. Thus, a battery required contact while an assault did not.

States took two approaches as they codified their criminal laws. Some states, like Missouri, combined assault and battery. Other states retained the distinction between assault and battery. In Illinois, for example, battery and assault are different charges with different statutory requirements and punishments.

Illinois Statutes Covering Battery Offenses

Illinois has several statutes covering harmful or offensive physical contact. Some of these charges cover sexual contact specifically, such as criminal sexual assaults.

The following statutes cover non-sexual contact, although the contact may be sexually motivated:

Battery

Battery occurs when the accused either harms the victim or makes contact with the victim in an insulting or provocative way. The contact must occur knowingly, and the prosecution must prove the accused knew the nature of their acts and that the prohibited result was practically certain to occur.

Thus, accidentally tripping and falling onto the victim will typically not qualify as a battery because the person was not consciously aware of their actions. Conversely, “knowingly” does not mean the accused knew their action would cause the exact injury, as long as they knew their act was potentially harmful.

For example, if you throw a coffee mug at your spouse during an argument, but you miss and strike your friend, prosecutors may still pursue battery charges against you.

Aggravated Battery

Aggravated battery happens when someone commits a battery involving certain circumstances that worsen the situation.

For example, the following types of battery fall under the aggravated battery statute when they result in permanent disfigurement, permanent disability, or great bodily harm:

• Using a toxic substance or bomb
• Harming a peace officer performing their duties or in retaliation for performing their duties
• Harming a person age 60 or older

Aggravated battery also includes injury to specific parties.

For instance, a battery involving any of these parties could be considered aggravated:

• A child or a disabled person injured by an adult
• A pregnant person
• A teacher or school employee on school property
• A senior age 60 or older
• A peace officer, judge, EMT, nurse, government employee, or utility worker performing their duties or in retaliation for performing them
• A transit employee or passenger
• An on-duty taxi driver
• A merchant who detained the accused for shoplifting
• A process server

A battery involving strangulation or the use of a firearm also falls under aggravated battery. Additionally, any battery at a public road, building, or venue, or in which the accused used a deadly weapon, wore a hood, pointed a laser sight at the victim, or recorded the offense, could be considered aggravated battery.

Finally, aggravated battery covers these situations:

• Delivering a controlled substance that causes permanent disability or great bodily harm to the drug user
• Administering a substance without the victim’s consent
• Serving food containing a substance meant to injure
• Throwing bodily fluid at a correctional officer by an inmate

The primary difference between battery and aggravated battery is that aggravated batteries are classified as felonies.

Domestic Battery

A domestic battery happens when a battery involves a family or household member. Under Illinois law, the following victims could trigger a domestic battery charge:

• Spouses and ex-spouses
• Parents
• Children, including stepchildren
• People related by blood or marriage
• People who cohabit
• People who share a child
• People in a dating relationship
• Caregivers and their patients

A key difference between battery and domestic battery is that repeat domestic battery offenses are elevated to felonies.

Possible Defenses Against Battery Charges in Southern Illinois

The strategies we can use to defend you depend on the unique facts surrounding your case. However, some general criminal defense strategies that may apply to your case include:

Self-Defense and Defense of Others

Illinois law allows you to use force to defend yourself or others under the self-defense statute. Self-defense applies when you use the reasonable level of force necessary to stop another person’s imminent use of unlawful force against you or someone else.

When successful, self-defense is a justification that can result in a dismissal or acquittal of your charges. That’s because this defense allows for a reasonable mistake. For example, if someone lunges at you with a knife, you are allowed to defend yourself even if the other person only meant to scare you and did not intend to stab you.

On the other hand, this defense is limited. If you were the initial aggressor, you typically cannot use self-defense as a justification unless the other person escalated the fight or you withdrew and the other person kept coming at you. In these situations, you may be legally allowed to defend yourself.

Defense of Your Dwelling

You may also be permitted to use force to defend your dwelling. Dwellings include homes, but they can also include cars, tents, or RVs that you live in. Again, you can use a reasonable level of force to prevent the other person from attacking or unlawfully entering the dwelling.

Privilege

The Illinois statutes exempt some uses of force from battery. For example, police officers can use reasonable force to execute an arrest. Similarly, a merchant can use reasonable force to detain shoplifters.

Lack of Intent

The battery statutes require knowledge and intent. This means prosecutors must prove that your actions were willful and that you were aware of the circumstances that made the act criminal.

Thus, you can raise a lack of intent if you touched the victim due to an outside force, such as being pushed into them. However, you cannot argue that you lacked intent because you didn’t know the law. If your actions were intentional, you may have violated the law even if you were not aware of the battery statute.

Penalties for Southern Illinois Battery Convictions

The offense level for battery, aggravated battery, and domestic battery ranges from Class A misdemeanor to Class X felony, with the following potential penalties: