Girl cast a spell on teacher. Gets ex-spelled.

[freethinker44]

To what degree do we think she actually believed it would happen?

I have no idea. I'm speaking in general here.

And how could one prove that she actually believed it would happen?

It would be more difficult, but you would prove it the same way as any other crime.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

I have no idea. I'm speaking in general here.

But we were speaking specifically on the girl earlier.

It would be more difficult, but you would prove it the same way as any other crime.

It is impossible to prove that she actually believed that what she was doing was going to work. Rather it would be impossible to separate it from a just as likely scenario in court where she would be portrayed as having done it out of spite or "just because" without any real belief that it would work. Perhaps it was just her way of getting through stress of the issue or having troubled thoughts as teenagers often do. So as for the "intent" of the crime it is very hard to prove something in this case. It is differnet when we have establsihed fact of a loaded gun being pointed at someone. I couldn't muster a defense of someone who didn't actually believe that shooting someone would harm them. But in this case I very well could.