Inchoate Crimes

Question 1

Solicitation (rule)

Answer 1

the crime of trying to get someone to commit your crime. The key to solicitation is a communication.

Rule: enticing, advising, inciting, inducing, urging, or otherwise encouraging another to commit the target offense.

Intent: the solicitor must intend the solicitee to perform criminal acts.

• The offense is complete at the time the solicitation is made, solicitor cannot withdraw from solicitation
• No requirement that solicitee commit the offense, but if they do or attempt to, the solicitation merges into that offense and the solicitor will be charged as an accomplice, not with solicitation.

Question 2

Attempt (rule/elements)

Answer 2

Attempt is the crime of “almost committing a crime.” The key is evidence that the defendant crossed the line from preparation to perpetration.

Two elements:
1.) specific intent or purpose to bring about the criminal result; and

2. ) a significant overt act in furtherance of that intent that proves the defendant went past the point of preparation and began perpetration.
   * common law: the D was required to perform the LAST ACT necessary to achieve the intended result.
   * MPC: acts prior are sufficient as long as they are a SUBSTANTIAL STEP toward the commission that indicates a purpose to complete or attempt has been made

Question 3

Proximity Test (many jurisdictions) (Attempt)

Answer 3

looks at how close in time and physical distance the defendant was to the time and place that the target crime was to be committed.

Question 4

Equivocality Test (some jurisdictions) (Attempt)

Answer 4

The D’s conduct unequivocally indicates they were going to complete the target offense.

Question 5

Defenses to Attempt

Answer 5

1. ) Abandonment:
   * (common law) no defense once the attempt was complete (moved from preparation to perpetration)
   * MPC: voluntary, complete abandonment is a defense

2.) Legal Impossibility: not guilty if the D thought they committed a crime, but the act was not criminal

3. ) Factual Impossibility:
   * A D will be guilty of attempt if the D would have committed the offense had the facts been as they believed them to be.

Question 6

Conspiracy

Answer 6

Conspiracy is the crime of planning to commit crime with someone else.

*The key is evidence that the defendants crossed the line from thinking about the crime to collective preparation to commit the crime.

Rule: Agreement to create an unlawful criminal combination between two or more persons with the intent to agree and the specific intent to commit an unlawful act

Question 7

Overt Act Requirement (Conspiracy)

Answer 7

• Modern law: requires an overt act in furtherance of conspiracy
• beginning preparation to commit the crime is all that is required; the act can be very trivial (unlike the requirement in attempt, where it must go beyond preparation to beginning perpetration.)

*common law: overt act not required; the agreement itself was the crime.

Question 8

Co-Conspirator Liability/Pinkerton Rule

Answer 8

Each co-conspirator is liable for the crimes of all other co-conspirators where the crimes were both:

1. ) a foreseeable outgrowth of the conspiracy (i.e., the murder of a guard); and
2. ) committed in furtherance of the conspiratorial goal

Question 9

Procedural Issues (Co-Conspirator)

Answer 9

1. ) common law: if there are only two conspirators, the acquittal of one co-conspirator required the acquittal of the other, because the conspiracy needs two persons.
2. ) MPC: allows for unilateral conspiracies, which permits the conviction of a single party when the other feigned agreement or is acquitted.

Question 10

Defenses to Co-Conspirator Liability

Answer 10

1. ) Withdrawl: a complete and voluntary withdrawal severs liability for future crimes, but is no defense to the charge of the conspiracy itself; requires notice to all conspirators.
   * applies in both common law and MPC
2. ) Renunciation: withdrawal plus an affirmative act to thwart the conspiracy can eliminate liability for the conspiracy.
   * Applies in MPC jurisdictions