P1:R1
100 word response 1 reference/intext citation from a website
Due 2/14/2025
Mickens
The federal law that addresses conspiratorial conduct is 18 U.S.C § 371 which states that “if two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of those persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both” (Legal Information Institute, 2022). The workings of organized crimes such as drug trafficking and terrorism take the conspiracy format where those involved conspire to commit crimes. With conspiracy law, a person that has agreed to participate in the criminal acts does not need to know the rest of the people involved to be prosecuted. This means that if an investigation manages to arrest one member of a drug trafficking ring or a terrorism group, they can use them to get to the rest of the members. If they do not cooperate in giving away their colleagues, they can be imprisoned as law enforcement continues with their surveillance on the rest.
Proving conspiracy in the court is challenging because of the standards that have to be met. The three evidentiary standards or elements that have to be proven are an agreement to commit crime among the conspirators, overt act which is an act by at least one of the conspirators to further the conspiracy after the agreement, and intent to make the crime happen (Cobb, 2024). Since it is not illegal to think about committing a crime but to commit it, it is challenging to argue intent because there is a thin line between conspiracy and freedom of speech. This means that unless the criminal act has been executed, it may be difficult to prove criminal act under conspiracy law. Potential misuse or overreach may occur because even in cases where no criminal act has been committed by any of the conspirators, punishment is still viable although in varying degrees (Legal Information Institute, 2022). A recent example where conspiracy laws were used to dismantle a drug trafficking deal was the United States v. Page (2024). Royel Page was charged and convicted of twelve counts of attempted heroine distribution and one count of drug conspiracy (FindLaw, 2025). Other people were also involved in the case and they all pleaded guilty.
