The crime of criminal conspiracy is known in criminal law as an inchoate offence. An inchoate offense refers to one of three criminal acts in which the transgression is committed or takes place prior to or in preparation of another criminal act. In addition to criminal conspiracy, the other two common inchoate offences are solicitation and attempt. Regardless of the inchoate offense, it is important to note that each of the three offenses are complete crimes in and of themselves. In other words, a person accused of an inchoate offense can be found guilty of that crime even though the underlying criminal act that it is supposed to happen afterwards, in connection with, or as a result of the inchoate offense may not actually have been completed.
Criminal conspiracy, more specifically, is defined as: (1) an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime who, (2) have an intent to enter into an agreement, and (3) have an intent to achieve the objective of the agreement (the crime), and (4) who perform an overt act “in furtherance” of the agreement. Under most criminal statutes, the overt act in furtherance, can be satisfied by a simple showing that the members of the agreement were preparing to carry out the agreement. That is to say, an act of criminal conspiracy is usually completed once the agreement is made and the overt act in its furtherance is taken. For example, if A and B enter into an agreement to rob C; and they begin planning a scheme in which to rob C; under the normal requirements of the law, they would be guilty of criminal conspiracy even though C was neither robbed by them nor did they actually attempt to rob C.
Criminal conspiracy and the other inchoate offenses, on first consideration, seem to conflict with traditional elements and principles of criminal law such as a need for mens rea, actus reas, a concurrence of the mental state and physical act, and an actual harmful result. However, such a consideration fails to understand the underlying reason for inchoate offense. The purpose of criminalizing conspiracy is to deter people ever thinking about committing crime in the first place, rather than punishing them after they already committed the crime. In other words, making conspiracy a crime is an attempt to neutralize people before they have a chance to carry out their criminal thoughts. Conspiracy satisfies the general principles of criminal law in that despite there being no need to for a harmful result, the parties to the agreement, nevertheless, had the intent to bring about the harmful result.
Another important aspect of criminal conspiracy that needs to be understood is that once a person is party to an agreement, all share in the consequences of the act. In other words, while A may have done the actually robbing of C, while B was in another city, B cannot argue that he took no part in the robbery. Under the elements of criminal conspiracy, B, regardless of his location, will be charged just as if he was present and assisted A in robbing C.
The facts suggest, when applying this understanding of criminal conspiracy to the case of John Angelo Gotti, otherwise known as “Junior”; that it was reasonable for the state to charge him with criminal conspiracy. As discussed above, to succeed in finding Gotti guilty, all the state would need to show was: an agreement between Gotti and another to commit a crime (murder, trafficking, racketeering), with an intent to achieved the objective of the crime (kill someone, sell drugs, operate illegal operations across state lines), and an overt act in furtherance of the agreement. Gotti need not actually have taken part in any of the crimes. Accordingly, if the information and evidence that was provided by Gotti’s boyhood friend John Alite is true, then that it is likely that the state will be successful in putting Gotti behind bars for the rest of his life. This outcome would be based, again, under the principle of criminal conspiracy which finds all parties to an agreement guilty of the actual crime, if the crime was actually completed. In Gotti’s case, all the crimes that might be relevant to his conspiracy charge, namely murder and drug trafficking.
References
LaFave, Wayne, R. (2000). Criminal Law, 3rd ed. St. Paul, MN: West Group.
Marzulli, J. (2008, Aug. 06). John Gotti Jr. arrested on murder conspiracy charge. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/john-gotti-jr-arrested-murder-conspiracy-charge-article-1.315845
Samaha, Joel. (2014). Criminal Law, 11ed. New York, NY: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
