Solicitation vs. Conspiracy to Commit a Crime

“Solicitation vs. Conspiracy to Commit a Crime” Please respond to the following:

· Compare and contrast the required elements of solicitation of another to commit a crime versus the required elements of conspiracy to commit a crime. Provide one (1) example of each crime in question. Provide a rationale to support your response and respond to no less than one of your peers

Chapter 4 is about Criminal Liability. With all of the criminal laws and punishment our system enforces, it’s a wonder to me sometimes that people still commit crimes. In fact, our system is so thorough that it prosecutes criminals who haven’t even yet committed a crime.

Attempt to commit a crime and conspiracy to commit a crime are examples of these “inchoate” (Legalese for incomplete) crimes. Inchoate is pronounced “In-KO-it.” Other examples are solicitation, which means trying to get another to commit the crime for you (contract murders) and incitement (spurring others on to commit a crime). These crimes do not have to be done to be prosecutable. Still, some acts have to be taken to further the conspiracy or attempt. Words spoken, making a phone call, email, letter, payment, etc. can form the basis for these acts. Thoughts alone are not prosecutable. Knowledge alone is not enough to prosecute for conspiracy, although knowledge coupled with failure to report and covering up the crime can make one liable for aiding and abetting. A special rule called the Wharton Rule states that a conspiracy, which generally requires two or more actors, will require at least three actors where it’s a crime that by its very nature requires two, such as a drug transaction or the crime of bigamy (marrying multiple partners).

Liability for conspiracy means that the conspirators who took part in agreeing to the crime don’t have to have taken part in the actual doing of the crime to be convicted. This is called the Pinkerton Rule. Punishment for these folks is the same as if they committed the crime themselves.

As you learned last week, every crime consists of certain elements and ALL elements must be proven before guilt or innocence can be decided by a jury. If any element is not proven, the judge throws out the charges and the case never gets to a jury. An element of crimes, in general is mens rea, which you also learned about in Week 1. Mens rea means guilty mind. In other words, the crime must be intentional. However, sometimes criminals have accidents, but that doesn’t relieve them of criminal liability. If a person doing a lawful act has an accident, he cannot be guilty of a crime. However, if a person doing an unlawful act has an accident (accidentally shoots someone), then intent is inferred from the doing of the unlawful act in the first place.