CORE CRIMINAL LAW SUBJECTS: Crimes: Article 134 - Soliciting Another to Commit an Offense

2009 (September Term)


United States v. Sutton, 68 M.J. 455 (a specification alleging that appellant asked his 10-year-old stepdaughter to lift her shirt to show him her breasts failed to state the offense of solicitation to commit indecent liberties with a child because the victim could not commit the offense of indecent liberties with a child on herself). 


2008 (Transition)


United States v. Custis, 65 M.J. 366 (in order to prove an Article 134, UCMJ, solicitation offense, the government must prove that the accused solicited another person to commit a certain offense, and that the accused did so with the intent that the person commit the offense). 


2005


United States v. Hays, 62 M.J. 158 (in stating that solicitation included any use of words or other device by which a person is requested, urged, advised, counseled, tempted, commanded, or otherwise enticed or incited to commit a crime, the court of criminal appeals did not improperly broaden the definition of solicitation to include conduct that would not otherwise be criminal; by quoting terms from a criminal law treatise that were synonymous with language from the MCM, the CCA merely offered additional explanation as to what constitutes a serious request in accordance with the established definition of solicitation). 


(neither the UCMJ nor the MCM precludes a conviction for solicitation simply because the object of the solicitation may be predisposed towards committing the crime; because there may be cases in which a solicitation transforms predisposition into action, this Court rejects appellant’s invitation to adopt a predisposition limitation on solicitation).


(the evidence was legally sufficient to sustain the accused’s conviction for soliciting another to commit carnal knowledge where he e-mailed another to inquire into whether that person had engaged in sexual intercourse with a minor female, immediately followed by a request for pictures of such an encounter, with a quid pro quo offer of similar pictures in return; the repeated urging for the other person to send pictures of him engaging in sexual intercourse with a minor female, as well as the quid pro quo contained in the same e-mail and the tone and language of the e-mail -- and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a reasonable factfinder could have found that the inquiry constituted a serious reque


2000

United States v. Williams, 52 MJ 218 (solicitation under Article 134, UCMJ, requires a showing that the accused solicited or advised a certain person to commit an offense other than one of the four listed in Article 82, UCMJ; and, in this context, means an express or implicit invitation to join in a criminal plan).

(case reviews legal sufficiency of evidence to sustain conviction for solicitation).


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