Is "conspiracy"?

Question

Is "conspiracy" the attempt by one or more people to make somehting illegal look legal?

Answer 1

Yeah pretty much.

Answer 2

It's usu. defined as "game planning."
Conspiracy is a theory or a "game plan," which you or I can have; we can have a "game plan" to go shopping, go to the movies, and then go to dinner. Where conspiracies become criminal is intent and motive. If, using the earlier example, I decide that while we're eating and you're not at the table (like, say, at the bathroom), to poison your food using some substance that I **KNOW** you're allergic to (has actually happened), then it's become conspiracy--in this case--to commit murder. Here, I knew you had a food allergy; I waited till you were relaxed and we were having a good time (you did notice that I didn't buy you a drink at the movies and put the food you were allergic to in your movie food, right?); and then, I waited till you left, even for the briefest of moments, and I took advantage of the situation (so you were defenseless and at my mercy).
Proving the motive part, another story. Usu. people that have a conspiracy charge against them are after something--maybe you're sleeping with my husband, maybe you've got an insurance payment, et cet, et cet. The bottom line is that with conspiracy comes a game plan, with a game plan comes motive and motive the intent. Intent is the migrane of all atty's and if you can't prove intent, in many cases, hang up your shingle on this one and go fishing (assuming you're not allergic to shell fish)

Answer 3

Coragryph is correct.

A conspiracy is an agreement between 2 or more persons to pursue some unlawful objective. The agreement could be express or implied. Additionally, the majority of jurisdictions now require some overt act; the overt act need not be a substantial step towards commission of the underlying act.

Assuming it is a criminal conspiracy, all co-conspirators are liable for all acts of the other co-conspirators so long as such acts are foreseeable and undertaken in furtherance of the conspiracy. Therefore, if two people agree to rob a bank and a victim is shot to death by one of the co-conspirators, the other co-conspirator is liable for the death, meaning she will be charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and murder. However, if one of the co-conspirators is killed, the other co-conspirators will generally not be held liable for that death.

Answer 4

No.

Conspiracy is an agreement by two or more people to perform some illegal action, or to perform an action that would otherwise be legal but do it in some illegal way.

The essence of the conspiracy charge is the agreement, though most jurisdiction require at least one overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy (could be almost anything) before the agreement itself can be prosecuted.

Answer 5

that's a rather narrow definition, but it's in the right ballpark.

there can be other kinds of conspiracies, though.