United States v. Crowder <\/a><\/em>(No. 08-3320) (Kanne, J.), the Seventh Circuit sided with the Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits, and affirmed Crowder’s conviction and sentence.\u00a0 <\/p>\nThe court’s analysis was brief and focused on administrability concerns with the Ninth Circuit’s test; the court preferred an approach that “does not lend itself to a fact-specific inquiry that inevitably will lead to unnecessary appeals and leave parties and courts ‘without much hope of guidance.'”\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s not clear to me, though, why the Ninth Circuit’s test was viewed as so hopeless.\u00a0 Its application to Crowder’s case, for instance, would seem straightforward enough.\u00a0 Perhaps there are other cases that would present complicated scope-of-the-conspiracy problems, but this merger issue does not appear to present itself very often — \u00a7 846 has been around since 1970, but the issue had apparently only been addressed previously\u00a0in four circuits.\u00a0 It’s hard to see a crush of “unnecessary appeals” suddenly arising because one test or another is adopted.<\/p>\n
Crowder, <\/em>though, is consistent with the tendency of the federal courts not to recognize that conspiracy is truly an inchoate offense (just like\u00a0attempt).\u00a0 The Model Penal Code has it right: attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy are all simply points along a\u00a0single inchoate spectrum, and a defendant should not be punished for more than one of these offenses “for conduct designed to commit or culminate in the commission of the same crime.”\u00a0 MPC \u00a7 5.05(3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police found marijuana hidden in a car that Maurice Crowder and a colleague tried to ship from Arizona to Illinois.\u00a0 Crowder was then charged with, convicted of, and sentenced for two crimes: attempted possession\u00a0with intent to distribute\u00a0and conspiracy, both in violation of 21 U.S.C. \u00a7 846.\u00a0 Sounds like double-dipping, right?\u00a0 After all, both crimes of 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![\"seventh](\"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/seventh-circuit.jpg\" "\\"seventh")
Police found marijuana hidden in a car that Maurice Crowder and a colleague tried to ship from Arizona to Illinois.\u00a0 Crowder was then charged with, convicted of, and sentenced for two crimes: attempted possession\u00a0with intent to distribute\u00a0and conspiracy, both in violation of 21 U.S.C. \u00a7 846.\u00a0 Sounds like double-dipping, right?\u00a0 After all, both crimes of conviction arose from the same underlying criminal plot.\u00a0 Crowder appealed to the Seventh Circuit\u00a0on this basis, arguing that he could not be punished for both crimes.<\/p>\n