In two decisions issued six weeks apart, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated convictions for attempted second-degree cruelty to children under D.C. Code § 22-1101(b)(1), prosecuted as attempts under § 22-1803. In Akers v. United States, 357 A.3d 310 (D.C. 2026), decided May 28, 2026, the Court vacated the conviction. The facts: on March 9, 2023, Ms. Akers’s five-year-old son, T.A., was dropped off at her apartment by his father, Antonio Avery, who had received a call from T.A.’s school reporting misbehavior. Avery made a video recording of what followed. The recording captured roughly two and a half
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