Identify and explain the four defenses to conspiracy

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Abandonment:Since the essence of conspiracy is an agreement, once the agreement is made, the proverbial horse has already left the barn. In other words, once a crime has been committed, it cannot be "undone." For this reason, there is usually no abandonment defense to a conspiracy charge. This is true regardless of whether an overt act is a requirement for a conspiracy conviction. That said, abandonment may work as something of a defense to charges for subsequent crimes arising from a conspiratorial agreement; if one party to a conspiracy withdraws and then finds him or herself charged with conspiracy for crimes committed after such withdrawal, then the defense may succeed. The Model Penal Code calls this defense "renunciation."For it to apply, two conditions must be met. First, the defendant must have "thwarted the success of the conspiracy." Second, the abandonment must have been "complete and voluntary."Withdrawal: Withdrawal is similar to abandonment, but it is not the same. First, abandonment requires that the defendant seek to defeat the conspiracy. There is no such requirement with withdrawal. Also, the withdrawal defense is more widely available than abandonment. Withdrawal is similar to abandonment, however, as it starts the clock on the statute of limitations; the statute of limitations starts at the point of withdrawal, not at some subsequent point in time if another crime is committed that the defendant did not agree to or participate in. The Model Penal Code also contains a withdrawal defense, which requires that the defendant either advise his co-conspirators that he is no longer involved in it or inform police about the conspiracy. Impossibility: Although impossibility rarely comes up in a conspiracy context, it is a possible defense in certain contexts. They have not committed a crime, even though they think they have. Such is the essence of impossibility—particularly legal impossibility. Wharton's Rule: The rule provides that a conspiracy cannot occur when two persons are required for the commission of a crime.