# Was a crime committed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 27, 2002, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926 "2002-04-27T06:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/1 "2002-04-27T06:40:51Z")
_[sub]Note to mods: I put this in GD rather than CS because I’m only using the show in question to explain.[/sub]_ After last night’s CSI, roommate and I were talking, and she said that she didn’t think the woman in the first case (relax) was guilty of anything. Basically, the woman and an accomplice attempted to set her husband up for attempted murder via car bomb. The CSI team did its thing and determined she was the “guilty” party. So, _is_ there a crime here? The husband was not charged with anything, no one was hurt, and the only damage was to the woman’s BMW (her own property). If I were to try and set my roommate up for murder, but she were cleared of guilt, no one was hurt and my complicity in the case were proven, would I be up on charges? Wouldn’t this be prosecuting simply for intent, and not for action? ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/2 "2002-04-27T07:22:05Z")
Yes, attempting to frame someone for muder is a chargable offence. ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/3 "2002-04-27T07:23:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beastal \* > \*\*Yes, attempting to frame someone for muder is a chargable offence. \*\* Ditto for “mu **r** der”. ---
**Author:** ![LokiTheDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6f9a4e/32.png) [@LokiTheDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LokiTheDog)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/4 "2002-04-27T07:23:34Z")
Wouldn’t that be “conspiracy to commit fraud” at the least? Conspiracy is all about intent, the fruition of the plan is not required. ---
**Author:** ![LokiTheDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6f9a4e/32.png) [@LokiTheDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LokiTheDog)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/5 "2002-04-27T07:30:49Z")
Look at it this way… If I attempted to murder my roommate but because I was such a bungling idiot I got caught, could I be charged with a crime… even though no one actually got murdered? yep You don’t have to be a **successful** criminal to be charged and found guilty, as a matter of fact don’t the successful ones get away scott free? ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/6 "2002-04-27T13:42:03Z")
What would the charge be, for trying to frame someone for attempted muder? ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/7 "2002-04-27T13:52:46Z")
If were talking car bomb here, I’m sure the feds would have something to say… ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/8 "2002-04-27T19:43:54Z")
another vote for intent ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/9 "2002-04-27T19:56:40Z")
She stole the dynamite. That’s a misdemeanor. Conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor is a felony. She planted evidence in hope of causing a legal conviction of an innocent person. That is obstruction of justice, conspiracy on that count too. Making a bomb is illegal, as well. Setting one off in a service station is definately illegal. Conspiracy to do those things too. Yep, crimes were committed. ## Tris “Sic transit gloria mundi. And Tuesday’s usually worse.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein ~ ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/10 "2002-04-27T20:08:54Z")
Filing false reports w/the police, obstruction of justice (by lying to the cops) all are crimes as well. I suspect that if you chose to blow up your own car and not report it, there might not be a crime, however, she and her co-hort allowed countless (well, less than 60 minutes at least) amount of police time investigating a crime they **knew** had not been committed. ample stuff to prosecute. ---
**Author:** ![PBear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@PBear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/11 "2002-04-27T21:26:17Z")
> [@](#): > > If I were to try and set my roommate up for murder, but she were cleared of guilt, no one was hurt and my complicity in the case were proven, would I be up on charges? > > Wouldn’t this be prosecuting simply for intent, and not for action? To answer your second question, the actions were the things you did to frame your roommate. In other words, merely fantasizing about it isn’t illegal. Trying to put the fantasy into effect is (or can be) regardless of whether you succeed. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/12 "2002-04-27T21:30:36Z")
by the way, assuming that ‘no one is hurt’ once they’re ‘cleared of charges’ isn’t actually accurate. Remember Richard Jewell (who was arrested then cleared of complicity in the Olympic Bombings in Atlanta)? I’d bet he wouldn’t agree ‘no one was hurt’ (and no, I’m not claiming that some one set him up)\> ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/13 "2002-04-27T21:45:14Z")
Sorry, I meant “no one was hurt” in the sense that I didn’t actually blow anyone up in the setting up of my roommate, not in the sense that her reputation wouldn’t be damaged. I should have been clearer. 🙂 Thanks, all for the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/14 "2002-04-27T21:55:09Z")
Oh, I knew what you meant **Sister** , but just even going through being investigated is pretty unnerving. (I’m careful now about using the phrase ‘no one was hurt’ in a legal sense, since a judge chewed me out - a woman who’s purse was stolen -by my client, a one-armed blonde minority- and recovered intact a few minutes later, I said no one was hurt. THe judge suggested to me that the woman who’s purse was stolen was harmed ‘just as much’ as my client had been when some one shot his arm off. I disagree w/her assesment in that instance, but noted the lesson as a generality) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-a-crime-committed/105926/15 "2002-04-28T00:46:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Triskadecamus \* > She stole the dynamite. She took it out of her husband’s car. Is that really theft? Isn’t anything owned by one spouse owned by the other? > [@](#): > > Conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor is a felony. Where’d “conspiracy” come from? > [@](#): > > She planted evidence in hope of causing a legal conviction of an innocent person. What do you mean by “plant evidence”? > [@](#): > > Making a bomb is illegal, as well. Is it?