State v. Huff, 769 N.W.2d 154 (2009)

  • Facts: Wisconsin election law makes it illegal to offer anything of value to induce a person to vote. An election official noticed a flyer at an incumbent's election party offering free food and drinks to early voters. Undercover agents—who were ineligible to vote in that district—attended; ∆ Huff, working for the campaign, escorted them to city hall and paid them $5 each after they showed vote stickers. Huff was convicted of conspiracy to commit election bribery.
  • Issue: May a defendant be convicted of conspiracy when the object of the conspiracy is legally impossible to fulfill (because the supposed co-conspirators are undercover officers ineligible to vote)?
  • Rule: In a unilateral-conspiracy jurisdiction, legal impossibility is no defense. The crime punishes the intent to fulfill the object, regardless of whether fulfillment is possible.
  • Analysis: Wisconsin's statute reaches both bilateral and unilateral conspiracies. A unilateral conspiracy does not require actual agreement among multiple culpable parties—only that ∆ intend to fulfill the object. Huff intended to bribe voters; that the agents could not lawfully vote is irrelevant.
  • Judgment: Conviction affirmed.

Reading: pp. 350–53. See Legal Impossibility.