That's a question that is easier to answer by showing you rather than telling you.
Suffice it to say, if you have reason to be looking at the New York Penal Law,
you have more than enough reason to be using GungaWeb to do it.That is because, if you are dealing with a New York State criminal case, there are a number of technical questions that are common to every case, yet are suprisingly difficult to answer for any specific case without some expert knowledge and a good deal of nose-to-grindstone legal research. With GungaWeb, that legal research has been done for you in advance, letting you get to the answers to your questions fast, with authoritative citations to back up your answers. Sound useful? It is!
What is the charge? What are the essential elements of this charge? What are the legal definitions of the key terms used to specify those elements? What lesser offenses are included within the crime charged? What aggravating factors might elevate this charge to a more serious crime? What restrictions govern plea-bargaining with respect to this charge? What is the defendant's maximum exposure if convicted of this crime? What is the most lenient sentence he might receive? What are all the sentencing options available to the judge for this defendant, with his criminal record, if any, if convicted? How do those sentencing options change if this defendant pleads guilty to a lesser included offense of this crime? Given a set of criminal elements drawn from the subject matter of a particular article of the Penal Law, what are all the crimes that might be charged based on the specified conduct? Over and above the penal sentence, what additional sanctions does this defendant face if he is convicted? Do those collateral penalties still apply if he is convicted of an attempt to commit the crime?
As I said, the best way to explain matters, is to show you . . .