Court Opinion

ID: 9532145
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:18:37.304706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:41.189389
License: Public Domain

Swainson, J.,
(concurring). I concur in the opinion written by Justice Williams. I do, however, believe that it is necessary to elaborate on one aspect of this case in the event that it is retried.
At trial, the people produced four alleged coconspirators to testify. Michael Hughes invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege and did not testify. Loren Eaton and Rick Ash generally denied knowledge of appellant’s alleged plan to sell marijuana and also denied any agreement with appellant to engage in such a sale. Only the informant, Michael Conley, testified that Atley intended to sell the marijuana and to pay Conley from the profits of the sale.
From this testimony, I think that it is quite likely that the jury found a conspiracy to sell between Atley and Conley. To the extent that the jury instructions allowed such a finding, I believe that they were in error. Informant Conley was not a coconspirator later given immunity, but an informant from the beginning who helped further the expedition. He did not merely present the opportunity to Atley to violate the law; instead, he furnished the necessary transportation to plan the harvest of the substance, rented the vehicle to haul the material, and helped harvest it. Conley, in short, encouraged the commission of the crime *318charged in acting at all times with the knowledge and consent of the police.
An informant who acts with the knowledge and consent of the police cannot, as a matter of law, be considered to be a coconspirator. "[T]o establish a criminal conspiracy the state must prove an agreement on the part of two or more persons, and it must prove that the common intent flowing from the agreement was specific and was criminal.” Harno, Intent in Criminal Conspiracy, 89 U Pa L Rev 624, 635 (1941). The informant, by his actions, demonstrates that he did not possess the specific intent to violate the law and further that whatever agreement he entered into with the defendant was feigned for the purpose of apprehending the defendant. As the Tennessee Supreme Court clearly held in DeLaney v State, 164 Tenn 432, 438; 51 SW2d 485, 487 (1932):
"There can be no criminal combination or conspiracy unless at least two persons guilty unite or agree in the purpose to pursue the unlawful enterprise; and if one of the two only feigns acquiescence in the proposal of the other, without criminal intent, there is no such agreement or concurrence in fact, and no conspiracy.”
See also, Woodworth v State, 20 Tex App 375, 382 (1886); State v Horton, 275 NC 651, 657; 170 SE2d 466, 470; 91 ALR2d 706 (1969).
If this case is retried, I suggest that the jury be cautioned that while a police informant may be used to prove the crime of conspiracy, he may not be considered a person with whom the defendant conspired. "There can be no conspiracy unless there is a union of wills, and if only one person feigns acquiescence in a proposal of another to pursue an unlawful enterprise, there is no conspiracy. One person cannot conspire with himself.” *319State v Horton, 275 NC 651, 657; 170 SE2d 466, 470; 91 ALR2d 706 (1969).
T. M. Kavanagh, C. J., and T. G. Kavanagh, and Levin, JJ., concurred with Swainson, J.