Criminal attempt under Texas Penal Code § 15.01 punishes an act beyond mere preparation toward a crime that was never completed. The attempt is graded one category below the offense attempted — attempted murder is a second-degree felony. Below: the statute, the punishment ladder, defenses including renunciation, and how attempt cases play out in Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant County.
Free, Confidential Case Review
Tell us what happened. A defense attorney reviews every submission — usually within the hour during business hours.
Published 2026-06-11 · Reviewed by Reggie London and Njeri London, Co-Founding Partners · Last reviewed: 2026-06-11
Peer Recognition
Martindale-Hubbell® 2026 Honors
Independent peer-review ratings recognizing legal ability and ethical standards.
Awards reflect peer-reviewed ratings only. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Controlling statute:Texas Penal Code § 15.01 Classification: One category lower than the offense attempted (§ 15.01(d)) Punishment range: Attempted capital felony = first-degree felony (5–99 years or life); attempted first-degree = second-degree (2–20 years); the ladder runs down to attempted state jail felony = Class A misdemeanor (up to 1 year + $4,000)
What Is Criminal Attempt Under Texas Law?
Texas Penal Code § 15.01(a) defines criminal attempt: a person commits an offense if, “with specific intent to commit an offense, he does an act amounting to more than mere preparation that tends but fails to effect the commission of the offense intended.” Three ideas do the work. The accused must have specifically intended a particular crime — not a vague willingness to break the law. The accused must have acted on that intent, and the act must have gone beyond mere preparation. And the act must have tended toward the crime while ultimately failing to complete it.
Attempt sits in Chapter 15 of the Penal Code, the chapter the Legislature reserved for preparatory offenses, alongside criminal conspiracy (§ 15.02) and criminal solicitation (§ 15.03). Unlike those two, attempt requires no agreement and no request — one person acting alone can commit it. Because § 15.01 attaches to offenses across the entire Penal Code, an attempt charge can be built on almost any target crime: attempted murder, attempted burglary, attempted theft, attempted assault. The charging instrument names the offense intended, and the attempt takes its punishment grade from that target.
Two subsections deserve more attention than they usually get. Section 15.01(b) provides that if the offense attempted “may be aggravated,” the conduct constitutes an attempt of the aggravated offense when an aggravating element accompanies the attempt — so displaying a deadly weapon during a failed robbery supports attempted aggravated robbery, not merely attempted robbery. And § 15.01(c) provides that it is no defense to an attempt prosecution that the offense attempted was actually committed. That rule sounds odd until you watch how prosecutors use it: when proof of a completed element is weak — entry in a burglary case, appropriation in a theft case — the State can charge the attempt, accept the one-category-lower range, and sidestep the contested element entirely.
Chapter 15 also refuses to stack on itself. Under § 15.05, an attempt to commit a preparatory offense is not a crime — Texas recognizes no attempted attempt, attempted conspiracy, or attempted solicitation. The Court of Criminal Appeals confronted exactly that problem in McCravy v. State, where the original opinion read an attempted-burglary indictment as alleging “an attempt to commit a preparatory offense which, by statute, is no offense at all” before the court, on rehearing, reread the charging language and upheld it. McCravy v. State, 642 S.W.2d 450 (Tex. Crim. App. 1982).
How Is Criminal Attempt Punished in Texas?
Section 15.01(d) supplies the rule: an attempt is one category lower than the offense attempted, and if the offense attempted is a state jail felony, the attempt is a Class A misdemeanor. The ranges then come straight from Chapter 12 of the Penal Code; our Texas punishment ranges guide covers each rung in depth.
Offense attempted
Attempt classification
Confinement range
Maximum fine
Capital felony
First-degree felony
5–99 years or life in prison
Up to $10,000
First-degree felony
Second-degree felony
2–20 years in prison
Up to $10,000
Second-degree felony
Third-degree felony
2–10 years in prison
Up to $10,000
Third-degree felony
State jail felony
180 days–2 years in a state jail
Up to $10,000
State jail felony
Class A misdemeanor
Up to 1 year in county jail
Up to $4,000
Class A misdemeanor
Class B misdemeanor
Up to 180 days in county jail
Up to $2,000
Class B misdemeanor
Class C misdemeanor
No confinement
Fine up to $500
The ladder bottoms out at Class C. Because Class C is already the lowest category in § 12.04’s ordering, an attempted Class C offense has nowhere to drop, and as a practical matter attempt prosecutions begin with Class B targets. Note what the ladder does at the other end: attempted capital murder is a first-degree felony, which still exposes a defendant to a life sentence — the one rung where “one category lower” gives up far less than people expect.
Three wrinkles shape the real-world range. First, the habitual and repeat-offender enhancements of §§ 12.42 and 12.425 apply to an attempt conviction the same as to any other offense of the resulting grade. Second, where a deadly weapon was used or exhibited during the attempt, the State can seek an affirmative deadly-weapon finding, which narrows community-supervision options and changes parole eligibility math. Third, renunciation evidence under § 15.04(d) — covered below — can pull punishment down one more grade at sentencing even when it falls short of a complete defense.
Elements the State Must Prove
The Court of Criminal Appeals distilled § 15.01 into four elements in McCravy v. State, 642 S.W.2d 450, 455 (Tex. Crim. App. 1982): (1) a person, (2) with specific intent to commit an offense, (3) does an act amounting to more than mere preparation, that (4) tends but fails to effect the commission of the offense intended. The State must prove each beyond a reasonable doubt, and each is a distinct fight:
Specific intent to commit a particular offense
Attempt is a specific-intent crime even when the completed offense is not. The State must prove the accused intended the target crime itself — intent to scare, to trespass, or to commit some lesser offense does not supply intent to murder or to burgle. Intent is usually proved circumstantially: statements, messages, tools brought to the scene, and the direction the conduct was heading.
An act — not just a plan
Thoughts, talk, and agreement are not acts under § 15.01. An agreement plus an overt act is conspiracy under § 15.02 — a different charge with different elements. For attempt, the State must point to identifiable conduct by the accused directed at the offense.
Amounting to more than mere preparation
The act must cross the preparation line — the most heavily litigated element, covered in the next section. The charging instrument must allege facts showing the act went past preparation; McCravy holds the statutory phrase itself is unnecessary if the alleged facts show the act’s character.
Tends but fails to effect the commission
The conduct must point toward completion of the target offense and fall short. Failure is baked into the charge — and if the crime actually was completed, the State may still charge attempt under § 15.01(c); it simply does not have to.
Where Is the Line Between Preparation and Attempt?
Texas courts describe an “imaginary line” separating mere preparation from an act that tends to effect the offense, and they refuse to fix it in one place. Two rules frame every argument. The line does not sit at the “last proximate act”: the Court of Criminal Appeals held in McCravy that § 15.01 was never intended to require that the accused be caught performing the final act before completion. McCravy v. State, 642 S.W.2d 450, 460 (Tex. Crim. App. 1982). But the line is not so early that shopping becomes a crime either — the court has said that simple acquisition and possession of a weapon would, in most situations, be preparation.
The court’s most recent extended treatment is Swenson v. State, 707 S.W.3d 297 (Tex. Crim. App. 2024), an attempted capital murder prosecution. The intermediate court had acquitted, reasoning that threat-type attempts require striking distance, the resources to attack, and a weapon in hand pointed toward the victim. The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected that proximity checklist and reversed, explaining that attempt law “allows intervention before the defendant has come dangerously close to committing the intended crime and allows the police a reasonable margin of safety after the intent to commit the crime was sufficiently apparent.” Searching for, following, or lying in wait for an intended victim while armed can cross the line even though the accused never got within striking distance — and the fact that the intended victim evaded the encounter does not undo the attempt.
Two clearly hypothetical examples show how the line gets argued in practice:
Hypothetical — attempted burglary. A man is found at 2 a.m. crouched at the back window of a closed pharmacy, screen removed, pry bar wedged under the sash. He has crossed the line: the removed screen and the wedged bar are acts directed at entry that tended but failed to effect the burglary. His friend parked across the street with a duffel bag of tools has a genuine mere-preparation argument — he assembled means but directed no act at the building.
Hypothetical — attempted theft. A shopper conceals a sealed power tool inside a backpack and walks past the last register toward the exit before being stopped. The concealment plus the movement past the point of sale is the act tending to effect the theft, even though she never left the store.
The decided cases run the same direction. In McCravy itself, cutting the electrical power to a building and climbing onto its roof was enough — the court called it “a very close question” but held the allegations sufficient for attempted burglary. In Swenson, expressed intent to kill an officer plus an armed search for one crossed the line without any face-to-face confrontation at all.
How Do Prosecutors Prove Criminal Attempt?
Attempt prosecutions are intent cases. Because § 15.01 makes specific intent the first contested element, the State builds its file around everything that reveals purpose: text messages and social-media posts, search history, recorded statements, surveillance video, the tools or weapons recovered, and testimony about what the accused said before and during the conduct. In Swenson, the defendant’s own expressed statements of intent carried that load; in shoplifting and burglary attempts, intent is usually inferred from concealment, forced entry, or possession of entry tools.
The act element gets proved through the charging instrument and the timeline. McCravy requires the indictment to allege either the statutory more-than-mere-preparation language or facts that adequately show the act’s character — which is why Texas attempt indictments read like short narratives: “did then and there attempt to enter a building… by turning off electrical power to said building and climbing to the roof.” Defense counsel reads that same narrative hunting for the gap between what was alleged and what the evidence shows the accused actually did.
Two charging-strategy patterns are worth knowing. First, because a completed offense is no defense to attempt under § 15.01(c), prosecutors sometimes charge the attempt deliberately when a completion element is contested — no entry testimony in a burglary, no appropriation in a theft — trading one punishment category for a cleaner elements case. Second, attempt rides along in completed-offense trials: Code of Criminal Procedure article 37.09(4) makes “an attempt to commit the offense charged” a lesser-included offense, so a jury unconvinced of completion can still return an attempt verdict. Defendants sometimes request that instruction as a compromise route; the State sometimes requests it as insurance.
What Defenses Work Against an Attempt Charge?
L and L Law Group builds attempt defenses around the statute’s own pressure points:
Mere preparation. The core sufficiency defense: concede whatever the evidence shows and argue it never crossed the imaginary line. Gathering tools, driving by, researching, even possessing a weapon — the case law treats all of it as preparation absent an act directed at carrying out the crime.
No specific intent. Ambiguous conduct — presence near a building, holding a weapon, an angry message — often supports several innocent or lesser readings. If the proof points to scaring rather than killing, or trespassing rather than burgling, the attempt charge fails as drafted.
Renunciation, § 15.04(a). A complete affirmative defense: under circumstances manifesting a voluntary and complete renunciation of the criminal objective, the accused avoided commission by abandoning the conduct or, if abandonment was insufficient, by taking further affirmative action that prevented the offense. Section 15.04(c) draws the boundary — renunciation is not voluntary if motivated by circumstances that increase the chance of detection or by a decision to postpone the crime or switch victims. Walking away because a patrol car turned the corner is not renunciation; walking away before any of that, and staying away, can be.
Renunciation as mitigation, § 15.04(d). Even when the affirmative defense fails, evidence of abandonment plus substantial effort to prevent the offense is admissible at punishment, and on a finding of renunciation the punishment drops one grade lower. Stacked on § 15.01(d), an attempt can effectively land two categories below the target offense.
Suppression. Attempt cases lean hard on statements and digital evidence. Where the stop, arrest, search, or interrogation was defective, a motion to suppress under Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.23 can take the intent evidence out of the case.
Impossibility arguments, used carefully. Arguing the crime could never have succeeded rarely wins on its own, because § 15.01(a) by its terms reaches conduct that “tends but fails.” The argument earns its keep inside the intent and preparation elements instead.
Can an Attempt Charge Be Dismissed or Expunged?
Dismissals in attempt cases come from the same levers as other prosecutions, plus one unique to the charge. Grand juries no-bill felony attempts when the alleged act reads like preparation. Suppression rulings gut intent evidence. And because the attempt grade is one category down, many attempt cases land in misdemeanor court, where pretrial-intervention and diversion programs in Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant County are more broadly available than for the completed felony.
Record relief follows the outcome. A dismissal or acquittal can support expunction under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A. Successfully completed deferred adjudication generally leads to eligibility for an order of nondisclosure under Government Code Chapter 411, subject to that chapter’s offense-specific exclusions and waiting periods — and because the attempt is graded below the target offense, an attempt resolution sometimes qualifies for relief that a completed-offense conviction would have blocked. A final conviction cannot be expunged.
How Attempt Differs From Conspiracy, Solicitation, and the Completed Crime
Chapter 15 contains three preparatory offenses, and the differences matter at charging:
Criminal attempt (§ 15.01) — one actor, specific intent, an act beyond mere preparation. No agreement or request required.
Criminal conspiracy (§ 15.02) — an agreement that a felony be committed plus an overt act by one of the conspirators. The agreement is the gravamen, and the overt act can itself be mere preparation.
Criminal solicitation (§ 15.03) — requesting or attempting to induce another person to commit a capital or first-degree felony, with a statutory corroboration requirement that protects against conviction on the solicited person’s word alone.
All three carry a one-category-lower punishment structure in some form, and § 15.05 bars charging an attempt or conspiracy to commit any of them. Against the completed offense, the practical differences are the punishment category, the lesser-included relationship under article 37.09(4), and the elements the State no longer must prove. Target offenses we cover in this encyclopedia include murder, capital murder, assault, theft, and burglary.
What Happens After an Attempt Arrest? The Court Process
Arrest and magistration. Within roughly 48 hours the accused sees a magistrate under Code of Criminal Procedure article 15.17 for statutory warnings and bail. Because the attempt grade is one category below the target offense, bond schedules and bond arguments track the lower category — an attempted third-degree felony is bonded like a state jail felony.
Charging. Felony-grade attempts proceed by grand jury indictment; misdemeanor-grade attempts by information. Read the instrument closely: McCravy requires factual allegations showing more than mere preparation, and an instrument that alleges only intent plus preparation invites a challenge. The grade also fixes the courtroom — felony attempts to district court, misdemeanor attempts to the county courts at law.
Pretrial. Discovery under the Michael Morton Act, article 39.14, brings the digital intent evidence in early. Suppression motions and the preparation-line fight shape plea posture; the lesser-included dynamic means an attempt count is often the negotiated landing spot in a completed-offense case rather than the original charge.
Resolution. Trial — with the attempt instruction in play for both sides — plea, diversion, or dismissal. Renunciation mitigation under § 15.04(d) belongs on the punishment-phase checklist in every attempt case that goes the distance.
County-by-County Practice Notes
L and L Law Group defends attempt cases across the four core DFW counties from our Frisco office:
Collin County. Felony attempt cases are heard in the district courts at the Collin County Courthouse (2100 Bloomdale Road, McKinney); misdemeanor-grade attempts go to the county courts at law in the same building. Frisco, Plano, and McKinney arrests all funnel there.
Dallas County. Criminal dockets run through the Frank Crowley Courts Building on Riverfront Boulevard. Felony attempts move through grand jury presentation like any felony; because attempt grading drops many cases a level, a meaningful share resolve in the county criminal courts instead.
Denton County. Cases are heard at the Denton County Courts Building in Denton, with the same district/county-court split controlled by the attempt grade.
Tarrant County. Criminal cases sit at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth. As everywhere else, the attempt category — not the target-offense category — decides which court hears the case.
Collateral Consequences of an Attempt Conviction
The conviction is entered at the attempt grade, and most collateral consequences key off that grade — but not all of them.
Firearms. Any felony-grade attempt conviction triggers Penal Code § 46.04’s felon-in-possession restrictions and the federal bar in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). An attempt graded down to a Class A misdemeanor avoids the felony firearm bar unless family-violence rules independently apply.
Sex-offender registration. The reportable-conviction definitions in Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 62 extend to attempts to commit several listed sexual offenses, so an attempt plea in a sex-offense case must be screened for registration exposure before it is signed.
Professional licenses. Licensing boards applying Occupations Code Chapter 53 evaluate convictions that directly relate to the licensed occupation, and an attempt conviction tied to a directly related target offense is treated accordingly.
Immigration. Federal law expressly includes attempts: 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(U) makes an attempt to commit an aggravated felony an aggravated felony itself. Non-citizens should treat an attempt charge as carrying the full immigration weight of the target offense.
Employment and housing. Background checks display the attempt with the target offense in the charge style — “attempted burglary of a habitation” reads to a landlord much like burglary.
Key Legal Terms
Criminal Attempt (§ 15.01)
An act amounting to more than mere preparation, done with specific intent to commit an offense, that tends but fails to effect the commission of the offense intended.
Mere Preparation
Conduct that assembles the means or plans for an offense without yet tending to effect its commission; preparation alone is not criminal attempt.
Specific Intent
The purpose to bring about the precise offense charged as the target of the attempt; attempt is a specific-intent crime even where the completed offense is not.
Renunciation (§ 15.04)
Voluntary and complete abandonment of the criminal objective that avoids commission of the offense; an affirmative defense to attempt and, failing that, punishment mitigation one grade lower.
One-Category-Down Rule (§ 15.01(d))
The attempt is punished one category below the offense attempted; an attempted state jail felony is a Class A misdemeanor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is criminal attempt a felony or a misdemeanor in Texas?
It depends on the offense attempted. Penal Code § 15.01(d) sets the attempt one category below the target crime: attempted first-degree felonies are second-degree felonies, attempted third-degree felonies are state jail felonies, and an attempted state jail felony is a Class A misdemeanor. Attempts aimed at misdemeanors drop one class the same way.
What does “more than mere preparation” mean?
It is the line between getting ready to commit a crime and legally attempting it. Texas courts call it an imaginary line drawn case by case: buying a tool or a weapon is usually preparation, while using it to gain entry, lying in wait, or hunting for the intended victim crosses into attempt. No single act answers the question — the courts look at how far the plan actually progressed.
Can I be charged with attempt if the crime was actually completed?
Yes. Penal Code § 15.01(c) states it is no defense to an attempt prosecution that the offense attempted was actually committed. Prosecutors sometimes use that rule strategically, charging the attempt when proof of a completed element is shaky.
What is the punishment for attempted murder in Texas?
Attempted murder is a second-degree felony carrying 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Murder is a first-degree felony, and § 15.01(d) drops the attempt one category. Attempted capital murder is a first-degree felony with a range of 5 to 99 years or life.
Is renunciation a defense to criminal attempt?
Yes — it is an affirmative defense under Penal Code § 15.04(a). The accused must show a voluntary and complete renunciation: walking away from the plan or taking affirmative action that prevented the crime. Backing off because police showed up or to wait for a better opportunity does not count, but even a failed renunciation showing can still reduce the punishment grade at sentencing under § 15.04(d).
Do I have to be caught in the act to be convicted of attempt?
No. Texas rejected any requirement that the accused commit the last act before completion. The State only has to prove an act beyond mere preparation that tended but failed to effect the crime — conduct like climbing onto a roof after cutting the power, or searching for a victim while armed, has been enough.
Can a criminal attempt conviction be expunged in Texas?
A conviction cannot be expunged, but other outcomes can clear the record. An acquittal or dismissal can support expunction under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A, and successfully completed deferred adjudication on an attempt charge may qualify for an order of nondisclosure under Government Code Chapter 411.
Does attempted murder require that anyone was hurt?
No. The statute punishes an act that tends but fails to effect the killing — firing at someone and missing is the textbook example. Injury affects the State’s evidence and plea posture, not whether the charge exists.
Can a jury convict me of attempt when I was charged with the completed crime?
Yes. Code of Criminal Procedure article 37.09(4) makes an attempt to commit the charged offense a lesser-included offense, so juries in Texas trials can receive an attempt instruction and return an attempt verdict even though the indictment alleged the completed crime.
Reggie London co-founded L and L Law Group with a focus on federal criminal defense, complex felony defense, and TEA/SBEC matters. Licensed in Texas, admitted to TXND and TXED.
Njeri London co-founded L and L Law Group with a focus on DWI defense, family violence cases, and juvenile defense. Licensed in Texas, admitted to TXND and TXED.
Charged with Criminal Attempt? Talk to L and L Law Group.
Co-founding partners Reggie London and Njeri London personally handle every case. Free consultation. Frisco, Texas.
L&L Law Group represents clients across North Texas counties for DWI, assault, drug crimes, juvenile defense, outstanding warrants, bond reduction, and expunction matters.
