Criminal Law Deep Dive: Inchoate Offenses and Accomplice Liability — Solicitation, Conspiracy, Attempt, Impossibility, Abandonment, and Aiding and Abetting
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🎧 EPISODE SUMMARY 🎧
Inchoate offenses and accomplice liability cover incomplete crimes and group responsibility.
The inchoate offenses (solicitation, conspiracy, attempt) are specific intent crimes. Under merger, solicitation and attempt merge into the completed target crime, but conspiracy NEVER merges.
Solicitation is encouraging another to commit a crime with intent that it be committed. It is complete immediately upon communication. Common law permits no withdrawal defense, but the MPC allows voluntary renunciation if the crime is prevented.
Conspiracy requires an agreement, specific intent, and (under modern rules) an overt act. The bilateral rule requires two guilty minds, whereas the MPC unilateral rule convicts a single actor. Wharton’s Rule bars conspiracy if the target crime inherently requires two participants unless a third joins.
Under Pinkerton, conspirators are liable for co-conspirators' foreseeable crimes in furtherance of the plot. Timely withdrawal cuts off liability for future crimes, but does not erase the initial conspiracy.
Attempt requires specific intent to commit the crime plus an act satisfying either the dangerous proximity test or MPC substantial step test. Factual impossibility is never a defense, but legal impossibility is. Abandonment is only a defense under the MPC if voluntary and permanent.
Accomplices who aid or encourage the principal before or during the crime are derivatively liable for the offense. An accessory after the fact only helps a felon evade arrest afterwards and is guilty of a separate, lesser offense.
Accomplice liability requires assistance or encouragement with dual intent to assist and commit the crime (mere presence or knowledge is insufficient). Liability covers all natural and probable consequences. Withdrawal requires repudiating encouragement or neutralizing material aid.
Key exam analysis roadmap:
Test solicitation, conspiracy, and attempt in sequence.
Apply merger rules (conspiracy never merges).
Check bilateral vs. unilateral conspiracy and Wharton's Rule.
Verify specific intent for attempt and evaluate impossibility.
Distinguish Pinkerton liability from accomplice liability and test withdrawal rules.
This roadmap ensures concise, accurate legal analysis.
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