Opinion ID: 2998236
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Jury Instructions on Conspiracy

Text: Dumeisi also appeals the instructions given to the jury on the law of conspiracy. Dumeisi was convicted both of violating 18 U.S.C. § 951, which provides criminal liability for anyone “other than a diplomatic or consular officer or attaché, [who] acts in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General,” and of conspiracy to violate the same. He argues that the IIS agents alleged to have conspired with him were all diplomatic attachés and thus were legally incapable of conspiring to violate this statute. As we have stated, “[t]he elements of the crime [of conspiracy] are not satisfied unless one conspires with at least one true coconspirator.” United States v. Mahkimetas, 991 F.2d 379, 383 (7th Cir. 1993) (citation omitted). To that end, Dumeisi proposed two different jury instructions related to the conspiracy count in his indictment. On appeal, he asserts that the district court’s refusal of these instructions was wrong as a matter of law. Again, we review the district No. 04-1882 21 court’s refusal to give a theory of defense instruction de novo. Buchmeier, 255 F.3d at 426. The first proposed instruction indicated that a diplomat need not inform the Attorney General that he is an agent of a foreign government. Although a correct statement of law, this instruction is irrelevant to Dumeisi’s case; no argument was made that he was exempt from the statute. Thus, the district court’s decision to refuse this instruction was proper. Defendant’s Proposed Instruction No. 6, more closely related to the argument we summarized above, stated: To be guilty of conspiracy, the defendant must have an agreement with at least one person. In considering whether there was at least one other person who was a party to the alleged agreement, you must exclude as potential parties any person acting entirely outside the United States and any person who was a diplomatic or consular officer or attache. The district court was unpersuaded that this instruction is a correct statement of the law. We agree that it is not. The rule that a conspiracy cannot be established between one criminally-minded individual and a government agent or informer was established to combat the risk of “ ‘the manufacturing’ of crime which might occur if the presence of government agents could create indictable conspiracies.” Mahkimetas, 991 F.2d at 383 (citation omitted). That risk is not present in this case. On the other hand, at least one of the risks that underlie criminal punishment for conspiracy—that of “concerted action shrouded in secrecy”—is entirely present here. Only one case interpreting § 951 (actually, its predecessor, 22 U.S.C. § 288) has been cited by the parties. In United States v. Melekh, the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that a U.N. employee could be convicted of conspiracy to violate the statute, even though 22 No. 04-1882 he himself could not have been prosecuted for failure to register. 193 F. Supp. 586, 592 (N.D. Ill. 1961). We agree with the analysis by the district court in that case that the purpose of the act “is to grant a personal exemption to such person as to his own liability for registration. There is no reason to suppose that carte blanche privileges were thereby to be accorded the immune person’s activities in respect to third parties not so immune.” Id. In other words, if there was a real agreement between Dumeisi and IIS agents for Dumeisi to act in the United States as an agent of Iraq without notifying the Attorney General, the diplomatic titles held by those IIS agents cannot save Dumeisi from being prosecuted for the conspiracy. The refusal of the district court to charge the jury with Dumeisi’s proposed jury instruction was proper.