Also known as: gradūs · degree · step
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A step or level on a hierarchical scale used to measure the extent of risk or culpability.
Gareth Glover fired a gun into a crowded bar during an argument. The shot killed a bystander. Prosecutors charged abandoned and malignant heart murder because the risk to human life reached the higher gradus required for that offense rather than the lower gradus of reckless involuntary manslaughter.
Genevieve Gardner threatened to burn down a store unless the owner handed over cash. Because the threat involved immediate commission of a first-degree felony, the gradus of the threatened offense elevated the charge to first-degree robbery.
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Gideon Graves told a neighbor he would punch him the next day. The neighbor understood the statement as a step toward future contact rather than imminent harm, so the conduct never reached the gradus of an assault under the imminence requirement.
Gabriel Gonzalez, the prosecutor, used peremptory challenges to remove three Black jurors. After the defendant made a prima facie showing, Gonzalez had to articulate a race-neutral reason at the second gradus of the three-step equal-protection analysis.
Gordon Gray sought to adopt his stepchild after the biological father had not contacted the child for five years. The court waived consent because the father's inaction reached the gradus of abandonment that made withholding consent contrary to the child's best interest.
Grandview Holdings leased space to a retail tenant for a clothing store. When the landlord failed to repair the roof, the tenant proved lost profits to a reasonable degree of certainty. The court awarded damages because the loss reached the gradus of harm the landlord could have foreseen at lease signing.
Gradus distinguishes the higher level of risk to human life required for abandoned and malignant heart murder from the lower though still culpable level that supports only involuntary manslaughter.
The gradus of the felony threatened or committed during a theft determines whether robbery is classified as first or second degree.
A statement about future contact does not reach the gradus of assault when the other party recognizes it as a step toward non-imminent harm rather than an immediate threat.
After a prima facie showing of racial discrimination, the prosecutor must supply a race-neutral explanation at the second gradus of the analysis before the court decides purposeful discrimination at the third gradus.
A court may waive consent when the biological parent's inaction reaches the gradus of abandonment that makes continued withholding of consent contrary to the child's best interest.
The tenant must prove lost profits to a reasonable degree of certainty and show the landlord could have foreseen the loss at the time the lease was made.
…between the status asserted and the claim sought to be adjudicated," Flast v. Cohen , 392 U. S., at 102, and the necessary degree of contentiousness, Golden v. Zwickler , 394 U. S. 103 (1969), are both present. The appellee notes, however, that the record does not disclose that Roe was pregnant at the time of the…