United States v. Shabani

United States v. Shabani
United States v. Shabani
	Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 3, 1994; Decided November 1, 1994
Full case name	United States, Petitioner v. Reshat Shabani
Citations	513 U.S. 10 (more) 115 S. Ct. 382; 130 L. Ed. 2d 225
Case history
Prior	Convicted, conspiracy to distribute cocaine; conviction overturned, 993 F. 2d 1419 (9th Circuit, 1993)
Subsequent	9th Circuit Reversed by Supreme Court and conviction upheld
Holding
	Absent contrary indications, Congress intends to adopt the common law definition of statutory terms. The common law understanding of conspiracy "does not make the doing of any act other than the act of conspiring a condition of liability."
Court membership
	Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor; Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy; David Souter · Clarence Thomas; Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinion
Majority	O'Connor, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
	21 U.S.C. § 846

United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10 (1994), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States clarified standards for conspiracy liability under a federal drug conspiracy statute.^[1] In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the Court held that government prosecutors need not prove evidence of an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy when prosecuting individuals under the drug conspiracy statute codified at 21 U.S.C. § 846.^[2] Justice O'Connor wrote that Congress intended to "adopt the common law definition" of conspiracy for section 846, which did not require an overt act as a precondition of liability.^[3] Justice O'Connor's opinion also compared the drug conspiracy statute to the general conspiracy statute,^[4] which requires that a conspirator commit an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy, noting that "[i]n light of this additional element in the general conspiracy statute, Congress' silence in § 846 speaks volumes."^[5]

References

^ United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10, 11 (1994).
^ Shabani, 513 U.S. at 13-17.
^ Shabani, 513 U.S. at 13-15.
^ Codified at 18 U.S.C. § 371.
^ Shabani, 513 U.S. at 14.

External links

Text of United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10 (1994) is available from: Findlaw Justia

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[1] United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10, 11 (1994).

[2] Shabani, 513 U.S. at 13-17.

[3] Shabani, 513 U.S. at 13-15.

[4] Codified at 18 U.S.C. § 371.

[5] Shabani, 513 U.S. at 14.

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See also

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