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Defenses to Criminal Conspiracy Charges

16 July 2019

Arthur Young

Do you know that you can be charged and convicted of planning, alongside at least one other person, a crime even if you don't actualize your plans? The charge you would face is a criminal conspiracy. Below are some of the defenses you can use against the charge.

Disprove the Elements of Conspiracy

For the government to convict you of criminal conspiracy, the prosecution must prove the following elements of the charge:

• You, together with at least one other person, agreed to commit a crime
• You intended to commit the crime
• At least one of you took a step, however small it is, towards the crime's commission

Therefore, you may be able to defend yourself if you can prove that your actions don't satisfy all the three elements above. For example, you can prove that even though you talked about committing a crime, you were just theorizing and none of you took any steps intended to actualize the crime.

Prove Abandonment

The defense of abandonment, also called withdrawal, relies on the fact that you withdrew from the conspiracy. Thus, even if your co-conspirators indeed committed the crime, you shouldn't be charged with conspiracy because you withdrew or abandoned the group and didn't participate in the crime.

For you to succeed with this plan, you must prove that you communicated your withdrawal to your co-conspirators. You must also prove that your withdrawal and communication happened before any of your co-conspirators could commit the crime.

Therefore, you cannot use the abandonment defense if you only withdrew from the conspiracy after your co-conspirators had committed the crime and went on the run from the police. Also, this defense doesn't work if you think your co-conspirators have a terrible plan, but go along with them for "the sake of it" and doesn't communicate your withdrawal plan to your co-conspirators.

Prove Entrapment

The last common defense is to prove entrapment by an agent of the government. This defense is common in cases where undercover police officers infiltrate a criminal group in order to identify the co-conspirators to a crime. In this case, you are basically claiming that you wouldn't have committed the crime if the government agent hadn't persuaded you to it.

You must prove three things to succeed with the entrapment defense. First, you must prove that the idea to commit the crime originated with the government agent. Secondly, you must show that the officer persuaded you to commit the crime. Lastly, you must show that you wouldn't have committed the crime otherwise.

If you need legal assistance, contact local law firm services.

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