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Conspiracy

Statute
18 USC 371. Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States

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 such 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.

If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.

Jury Instruction
The Defendant can be found guilty of that offense only if all of the following facts are proved beyond a reasonable doubt:

  1. That two or more persons, in some way or manner, came to a mutual understanding to try to accomplish a common and unlawful plan, as charged in the indictment;
  2. That the Defendant, knowing the unlawful purpose of the plan, willfully joined it;
  3. That one of the conspirators during the existence of the conspiracy knowingly committed at least one of the methods (“overt acts”) described in the indictment; and
  4. That such “overt act” was knowingly committed at or about the time alleged in an effort to carry out or accomplish some object of the conspiracy.

An “overt act” is any transaction or event, even one which may be entirely innocent when considered alone, but which is knowingly committed by a conspirator in an effort to accomplish some object of the conspiracy.

A person may become a member of a conspiracy without knowing all of the details of the unlawful scheme, and without knowing who all of the other members are.

Of course, mere presence at the scene of the transaction or event, or the mere fact that certain persons may have associated with each other, and may have assembled together and discussed common aims and interests, does not, standing alone, establish proof of a conspiracy. Also, a person who has no knowledge of a conspiracy, but who happens to act in a way that advances some purpose of one, does not thereby become a conspirator.