Is the crime of conspiracy complete "when two or more persons agree to commit a crime and do some overt act in furtherance of the agreement"?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Superior Court (Caswell), 250 Cal.Rptr. 515, 46 Cal.3d 381, 758 P.2d 1046 (Cal. 1988):

Similarly, the crime of conspiracy is complete "when two or more persons agree to commit a crime and do some overt act in furtherance of the agreement." (People v. Cockrell (1965) 63 Cal.2d 659, 667, 47 Cal.Rptr. 788, 408 P.2d 116; 182, 184.) "The overt acts need not be in themselves criminal in nature so long as they are done in pursuance of the conspiracy. [Citations.]" (People v. Robinson (1954) 43 Cal.2d 132, 139, 217 P.2d 865.) As with a criminal attempt, the crime of conspiracy may thus consist of an otherwise innocent act coupled with a certain criminal intent. Although no guidelines are set forth in the conspiracy statutes to assist police officers in determining when an otherwise innocent act justifies an arrest for conspiracy, that omission does not lead us to find sections 182 and 184 unconstitutionally vague for conferring too much discretion on law enforcement. Instead, we again conclude that any fear of arbitrary or discriminatory[46 Cal.3d 398] enforcement of our conspiracy laws is generated by the possibility of overzealousness on the part of the arresting officer and not vagueness in the criminal statute.

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