I have a character who plans to kill his wife, but she is kiled before he can carry it out.
Would he be charged with conspiracy if it comes to the attention of the police? It has only reached the discussion stage, no preparations have taken place.
Kat

Kat, I'm pretty sure it's still a crime, even if nothing happened. Though the less concrete the plans had become, I guess the easier it would be for the defence to argue it wasn't serious...

Great plot idea, by the way.

Emma

Thanks Emma, pretty pleased with it myself.
On another thread on WW found mention of Wikipedia,and looked it up. If a crime is prevented by an accident then it should not count. Law on this changing is all the time due to terror threat. However as my co-conspirators also wouldn't know, it is not information they would want to volounteer to the police.
Kat

Great plot, Kat!

I suspect the guy might get away with this unless there is evidence that he discussed the idea with the murderer, in which case he might be accused of incitement to murder.

If I were you, I'd talk to my local police HQ – they’d probably love the idea!

Dee

Be interesting to see how you phrase it.

"Well officer I just wanted to clarify a few points about the legalities of conspiracy to murder. Is it still a crime even if the person dies before you have a chance to do them in?"

"Can I ask what this is relation to?"

"Well you see I have an idea...for a book... and I just wanted to cover all the angles, you know, to make it realistic."

"Of course madam, now if you wouldn't mind I'd just like to take down a few of your details..."

Kat check out www.cps.gov.uk it might give you a few useful links. I'll also ask my colleague (if I remember) there's a good chance that he'll know.

Any sudden deaths in the family could cause a few raised eyebrows at the local nick, too. One reason why I don't write mysteries, how can you ask about the best way to murder someone and get away with it? Even more worrying is if I could access that information so could anyone. It strikes me that an internet dicussion on the best way to commit murder could also be seen as a conspiracy.
Kat

Wouldn't it be good (in a literary way) if the husband conspired to murder his wife, she then dies in an accident, and the accident itself is taken as the murder attempt, even when it's not? Could make for an interesting twist.

Sorry, not trying to write it for you, just thinking out loud really.

JB

JB
Good twist,not the one I've used but maybe next time.
Kat

Hi Kat,

The answer is yes.

Geoff

Thank you Geoff. Just what I wanted to hear.
Kat

Kat,

After working in the funeal profession, I thought about how one could commit the perfect murder.

It would be so easy, for a funeral director to kill someone, take them back to the funeral parlour, chop them up and hide their body bits in different coffins.

1) The funeral director has keys to the premises - they often collect bodies at night and have to take them back and put them in the fridge.

2) There are scapels and instruments in the mortuary to cut the body up with.

3) If there are funerals the next day, the coffins are often all ready to be taken to the church/burial ground/crematorium. He could easily unscrew the lid, put a body part in, then put the lid back on and screw it up again. Nobody would ever know.

If I wrote crime novels, I'd use this, so anyone else who wants to use the idea, go ahead.

Katerina x

<Added>

funerals, scalpels

There was a huge scandal not long ago in the US where several funeral companies had been stealing organs from the bodies and selling them. The standard routine in the US seems to be for everyone to go and see the body, so they were re-built with whatever rubbish came to hand to look convincing... ugh! They had a very neat paper trail to make the organs look legit - the hospitals etc. weren't aware of it either - and it went on for years and years, but only really hit the headlines because one of the victims was Alistair Cooke.

Emma

Katarina
I have to say the image is revolting, but a wonderful storyline. Are you sure you're not secretly yearning to move to Crime and Thriller group? Not even a little bit? A shame for all that gruesome experience to go to waste.
I believe there was also a scandal about bodies going missing, and the odd mix up over names.
Kat

Kat,

I'm sure you've sorted this by now. But yes, he would be done for conspiracy to commit murder, regardless of who actually killed her. In my other life, I studied Law for two years, and to commit a crime you need Intention and Act. If the intention is there, but not the act, it is still a crime. If the act is there, but not the intention, you can use a defence and hope you get a kind jury.

Just as an aside to this, our local police force has a special contact for questions from members of the public doing research for books, projects etc. Though I don't think that's his only job! I suspect other forces have the same - it's a PR-related role. If you ask your local force, they'll give you the contact details.

I also find helpful murder/death information from our nurses at the University Health Centre - who are always more than happy to help with blood angles, wounds, what a dead person looks/feels like etc.

Bottom line is - if you ask nicely, 99% of people will help out.

A
xxx