There are various defense strategies
when it comes to conspiracy cases.
Attacking the knowing and willful
elements of the conspiracy are always
always going to be at the forefront. Did
the accused did your client knowingly
and willfully join a conspiracy? Did
they engage in a criminal partnership as
opposed to them believing that they join
into a legitimate business that turned
out to be criminal? The agreement
itself, the partnership itself and
whether there is evidence of that is at
the forefront. Now, the government does
not have to show a in and the statute
says this and the the instructions on
the law that a jury reads says this.
They don’t have to see a shaking of
hands. They don’t have to see a text
messages a text message that says hey
let’s you know get together and violate
the law. We don’t see that very often.
They’re allowed to prove the knowledge
element of conspiracy when it comes to
did this person have the actual intent
to knowingly and willfully join through
circumstantial evidence or through
context. So that is usually the element
that we are focused on very often. The
other way I would say that’s probably
most common among different ways is
attacking the cooperating witnesses,
attacking the credibility of the
cooperating witnesses. So in a
conspiracy case, because you so often
have cooperators, there are ways to
impeach them. There are ways to attack
their credibility. There are laws and
instructions that say to a jury if a
matter goes to trial, a conspiracy case,
they are allowed to consider and they
actually, excuse me, must consider that
someone who took a plea deal in order to
testify, you can look at them, ladies
and gentlemen of the jury with less
credibility automatically. someone who
is cooperating, someone who received
immunity, they automatically lose
credibility and are actually instructed
to to do so and for this to happen by
the judge. So, attacking the credibility
of the cooperators and attacking the
knowing and willful partnership itself,
I would say are the two main defenses we
have in a conspiracy case.