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Evil Vehicle. A conspiracy charge gives the Government a wide range of locations in which to present its case; it can bring its charges in any area where the conspiracy was either hatched or advanced. Most important of all, however, are the evidentiary advantages. Anything any conspirator said to further the plot can be used against all conspirators. One exception is a confession by one of the plotters. Theoretically, it can only be used against the man who made it. But juries often find it difficult to remember that fine point and tend to regard the confession as damning to all the conspirators.
The prosecution case is usually aided by such a technically improper jury assumption, and defense lawyers are hardly happy about it. Says Indianapolis Attorney John Raikos: "The real evil of conspiracy is that it is a vehicle used by the prosecutor to get in evidence that he could not otherwise possibly get in." Some legal scholars agree. Yale Law Professor Abraham Goldstein says: "It threatens the whole fair-trial notion." And, he adds, it crowds the maxim of Anglo-Saxon law that a man cannot be punished for evil intent alone.
It can be "a legal vacuum cleaner," agrees Georgetown's William Greenhalgh, "but only if misused." Ultimately, it is only the potential for misuse that disturbs most critics. By and large, prosecutors have not gravely abused their potent weapon, perhaps out of fear of provoking judges to limit it.