Venue in criminal conspiracy prosecutions

COMMENTARY ON §705-524 Section 705-524 is aimed at affording the defendant constitutional venue protection. The Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution provides that in "all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." However, the use of a conspiracy charge under current, loose definitions of conspiracy dilute this protection. The unilateral approach of the Code, its limited definition and scope of conspiracy, and section 705-524 combine to establish proper venue. As the Model Penal Code commentary points out: It is contemplated that the stricter tests of a conspiracy's scope advanced in the Draft will considerably limit the present dilution of the constitutional protection. [Section 705-524] explicitly provides that proper venue for a conspiracy charge will be tested by the defendant's agreement or overt act or an overt act of a person with whom he conspired. It assures that in complex cases involving a number of separate conspiracies, venue as to each conspiracy with which each defendant is charged will not be laid on the basis of an overt act done pursuant to a different conspiracy or by a person with whom he did not conspire.[1] __________ §705-524 Commentary: 1. M.P.C., Tentative Draft No. 10, comments at 138-39 (1960).