ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. - In the broadest sense of the word, it is any violent act directed against another's right. When its object is a right protected by criminal law, its notion, insofar as it prescinds from the attainment of the immediate end proposed by the agent, is confounded with that of attempt (v.); but this does not prevent it, in certain cases of special political importance, from constituting a separate crime. To this category belong the legal figures of the attempt against the constitution of the State (cf. art. 283 of the Italian Penal Code), of the attempt against the political rights of the citizen (ibid., art. 294), against the head of State (ibid., art. 276), against the heads of foreign States (ibid., art. 295), etc. (cf. the amendments made to some of the articles cited, by law of 11 Nov. 1947, no. 1317). The repression of the attempt against the Supreme Pontiff is provided for by art. 8 of the Lateran Treaty (11 Feb. 1929), where it is said: "Italy, considering the person of the Supreme Pontiff sacred and inviolable, declares punishable the attempt against it and the provocation to commit it with the same penalties established for the attempt and the provocation to commit it against the person of the King."
In canon procedural law the term attempt assumes a particular technical meaning, serving to designate any act performed by one party to the prejudice of the other, or by the judge to the prejudice of one of them or of both, against the rule "lite pendente nihil innovetur" (cf. can. 1854 in relation to can. 1725, no. 5 of the CIC). Attempts are null by full right, and their nullity, on the request of whoever has an interest therein, must be declared by decree by the same judge of the principal cause; saving the possible action for damages in cases of violence or fraud (cann. 1855-57).
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Ferruccio Liuzzi