What is aggravated battery?

Aggravated battery elevates a battery based on the severity of the harm or the use of a weapon. It's a second-degree felony, carrying up to fifteen years.

Two routes to the charge. Great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement — a standard higher than ordinary injury, and genuinely contestable. Or use of a deadly weapon, which is broader than firearms and knives; courts have found ordinary objects to qualify depending on how they were used.

There's also a provision covering battery on a person the offender knew or should have known was pregnant.

Where these cases are fought: whether the injuries actually meet the "great bodily harm" threshold rather than being serious-but-not-qualifying, whether an object was used in a manner making it a deadly weapon, and whether the force used was justified.

Because a weapon is often involved, sentencing enhancements can apply, which makes the weapon allegation worth attacking independently of guilt.