Inchoate Crimes Flashcards
Elements of Solicitation
Solicitation consists of inciting, counseling, advising, urging, or commanding another to commit a crime, with the intent that the person solicited commit the crime. It is not necessary that the person solicited respond affirmatively.
The MPC defines solicitation broadly to include…
requesting another to commit an offense (including misdemeanors and felonies).
The crime of attempt consists of two elements:
a specific intent to bring about a criminal result; and
a significant overt act in furtherance of that intent (beyond mere preparation).
Defenses to Attempt
Abandonment (MPC)
Legal Impossibility (the defendant did all those things he intended to do, but his acts did not constitute a crime.)
A conspiracy is
an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime.
Mental State for Conspiracy
Conspiracy is a specific intent crime. The mental state required is both the intent to agree and the intent to achieve the objective of the agreement.
Overt Act Requirement for Conspiracy
Common Law vs. Majority Rule
The majority rule is that an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy is also required for conspiracy liability.
b. Common law had no such requirement (the agreement itself constituted the crime).
c. The overt act requirement for conspiracy need not be criminal or unlawful, and need only be committed by one member of the conspiracy.
d. Mere preparation will suffice.
Pinkerton doctrine
Provides that each conspirator is liable for the crimes of all the other co-conspirators where the crimes were both:
a. a foreseeable outgrowth of the conspiracy; and
b. committed in furtherance of the conspiratorial goal.
Most jurisdictions reject this doctrine.
The Wharton Rule states that
in crimes where two or more people are necessary for the commission of the offense, there is no conspiracy unless the agreement involves an additional person who is not essential to the definition of that crime.
The MPC, however, follows the unilateral approach to conspiracy…
And dispenses with the requirement that two people actually agree.
Under the unilateral approach, all of the co-conspirators, having feigned agreement or having been acquitted will not alone, prevent a defendant from a conviction for conspiracy.
Withdrawal by a co-conspirator may…
General Rule
Cut off further liability for crimes committed in furtherance of the conspiracy if, however, the withdrawing conspirator communicates his withdrawal to each of the co-conspirators.
Withdrawal by a co-conspirator may…
MPC Rule
be a valid affirmative defense to the charge of conspiracy itself where the renouncing party gives timely notice of his plans to all members of the conspiracy and performs an affirmative act to “thwart” the success of the conspiracy.
