Can I be charged with Conspiracy in FL if my co-conspirator is a Government Agent?
In Fl the law is clear. If the only other party to a conspiracy is either a cop, or someone working for or at the direction of the cops, then there is no conspiracy.
In FL we call it “the King Rule”, and it comes from a 1958 Miami based gambling and bookmaking case called King v State where 2 of the 3 co-conspirators were cops. In that case the Florida Supreme Court ruled that in a conspiracy case the State has the burden of proving the criminal intent of a second “non-police person” who is a part of the conspiracy.
A conspiracy needs 2 or more people agreeing and acting together toward an unlawful end, and since a cop’s intent is to uphold the law and not to break it (well, presumably anyhow), the intent element of conspiracy cannot be met because there is only 1 non-law enforcement co-conspirator who actually intended to commit the crime.
This is why you can be arrested, and convicted, for solicitation of prostitution, but not for conspiracy, where there is no prostitute, only an undercover cop, who, regardless of what she said, would never have actually performed oral sex for 50 bucks.
At Michael A. Haber, PA “it’s all about reasonable doubt”!
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