Circuit split · criminal law
Whether a conviction for conspiracy to obstruct justice requires that a judicial proceeding be pending at the time the defendants formed the conspiracy
1 federal appellate case on this question, each acknowledging the disagreement in its own words.
- United States v. Vaghela169 F3D 729
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals · March 12, 1999
“Accordingly, we disagree with the Fifth Circuit position to the extent that it holds that a conviction for conspiracy to obstruct justice will always require a pending judicial proceeding to be in existence at the time the defendants formed the conspiracy.” — Disagrees with another circuit
Empirical analysis of this case →
The provision at issue
18 U.S.C. § 371 — Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States
“If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such …”Read the full section →
The other side of the split
Decisions the acknowledging court(s) named as the opposing or joined side, quoted in the acknowledging opinion's own words.
- Joined by · 3d Cir.United States v. Messerlian832 F.2d 778
“Because the direct object of the actions agreed to by the conspirators in Messerlian was to prevent or otherwise obstruct the commencement of a grand jury investigation into the circumstances surrounding the ar-restee’s death, we agree with the Third Circuit that sufficient evidence existed to convict the Messerlian defendants of conspiracy to obstruct justice.” — United States v. Vaghela, acknowledging the split
- On the other side · 5th Cir.Cihak137 F.3d 263
- Discussed · 3d Cir.United States v. Perlstein126 F.2d 789
What the split turns on
- Anchor precedents:
- Aguilar515 U.S. at 601, 115 S.Ct. 2357
- Doctrines & tests:
- nexus requirement
Cases are grouped by the legal question they announce a split on, classified from the court's own acknowledgment sentence. Verified acknowledgments only. Counter-side decisions are extracted from the acknowledging opinions' own text and linked only when the citation resolves in this corpus. See all circuit splits.