Court Opinion

ID: 9483231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:14:55.844414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:30.303573
License: Public Domain

John P. MOORE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent from the court’s analysis and conclusions relating to the defendants’ conspiracy conviction. For me, this case presents a unique situation which is not subject to the modality of ordinary conspiracy review. Two fundamental points move me to this conclusion.
First, the government charged the conspiracy existed only on one day, May 11, 1990. Because this limitation on the scope of the conspiracy seemed peculiar, I asked government counsel at oral argument whether the government relied upon any fact that occurred other than on that date to establish the conspiracy. The response was in the negative. Thus, the government’s evidence in support of the charge of conspiracy is very circumscribed.
Second, the charge was that the defendants conspired to possess crack cocaine for the purpose of distribution. By its nature, the indictment alleged an agreement to control of the illegal substance on a given day, by possession. That is not the same as agreeing to distribute, or agreeing to attempt to sell, or actually possessing cocaine. Rather, the charge implicates an agreement to jointly control cocaine for the purpose of distribution.
The court correctly holds it is not ordinarily necessary to prove actual possession to satisfy the elements of proof of the crime of conspiracy to possess. I believe, however, that broad-brush conclusion ignores the peculiar facts of this case which make the general principle inapposite.
I start my analysis from the premise that the essence of conspiracy is the agreement. United States v. Esparsen, 930 F.2d 1461, 1471 (10th Cir.1991), cert. denied — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 882, 116 L.Ed.2d 786 (1992) (“The core of a conspiracy is an agreement to commit an unlawful act.”). The agreement must have a purpose, however, United States v. Harrison, 942 F.2d 751, 755 (10th Cir.1991), and the charged purpose in this case was to possess cocaine. Because there was no direct evidence of this agreement, the government was burdened with having to prove its case by circumstantial evidence. While this burden is far from unusual, the circumstances and what the government actually proved lead me to conclude there is no evidence that Mr. Porter agreed to possess cocaine as charged in the indictment.
It is fundamental that an agreement to possess must be mutual. In this case, no distinction was drawn in the charge between the culpability of the defendants or the amount of control each allegedly agreed to exercise over the substance. Hence, the charge implied both mutually agreed to possess the cocaine.
Yet, that charge is not unusual. What is distinctive is that portion of the charge which limits the conspiracy to one day. Therefore, we are limited to the circumstances proven by the government to have occurred on that day to determine whether there is evidence that Mr. Porter agreed with Mr. Slater to possess, or jointly control, cocaine. When I make that search, I find no such evidence.
The court takes the position that so long as Mr. Porter knew about and was responsible for Mr. Slater’s reasonably foreseeable activities, he is guilty of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute. Respectfully, I believe that generality ignores the charge contained in the indictment and the mutuality of purpose it necessarily incorporates. If the logic of the court’s analysis were to prevail, the government could simply charge two people with agreeing to act *640together and whatever crime either of them subsequently committed could serve as a basis for charging the other with conspiracy to commit that act.
Ignored by the court is the end point that the government’s case must show the defendants agreed to possess cocaine. That requires some showing of accord on Mr. Porter’s part. Proof of agreement does not require proof that he actually possessed cocaine, but that he merely agreed to possess it.1 My review of the record reveals no such evidence.
Although the court points to evidence which it believes establishes the agreement to possess, I disagree. I do not believe that evidence proves an agreement to possess by Mr. Porter. At most, that evidence proves the defendants were acting in concert, but such action is only one half of the conspiracy equation. Lacking is the evidence of purpose. Indeed, Mr. Porter even suggests the evidence may show a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, but, he counters, that is not what was charged. I agree with his suggestion.
Because the government did not prove the defendants agreed to possess cocaine, I would reverse Mr. Porter’s conviction on that charge. Because Mr. Slater could not conspire with himself, my analysis would require his acquittal as well.

. Indeed, if the object of the conspiracy is frustrated, the crime of conspiracy is still complete when the parties agree to achieve the objective.