: How can one plan elaborate crimes for fiction without getting into trouble? The crime of conspiracy is a limitation on free speech in the united states. Merely talking about, in fine detail,

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From the Official Code of Georgia (Annotated): A person commits the offense of conspiracy to commit a crime when he together with one or more persons conspires to commit any crime and any one or more of such persons does any overt act to effect the object of the conspiracy... (OCGA 16-4-8). Further, in the 'annotated' portion of the code, "Conspiracy to commit particular substantive offense cannot exist without at least the degree of criminal intent necessary for substantive offense itself."

This lets you off the hook in two different directions. First, in order to commit the crime of conspiracy, you or someone else would have to take actual steps towards committing the underlying crime (i.e. the overt act element).

Secondly, and more importantly, Conspiracy is a specific intent crime, meaning there is a state of mind element required. This is referred to as the Mens Rea (literally, 'Guilty Mind'). You can't commit conspiracy accidentally, you have to intend to actually commit the crime and you have to intend to conspire to do so.

This is based off the Georgia state legal code, but it is representative of the criminal code elsewhere.

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I have never heard of someone being charged with a crime because he discussed a hypothetical crime for a work of fiction.

I guess it's easy enough to imagine two writers discussing plot details for a book who are accidentally overheard by someone who thinks they are plotting a real crime. Frankly though, if the police came by and you explained that you were working on a book, and there was no other evidence that you were planning an actual crime, I think the incident would be promptly dropped. Maybe, possibly, they would put a note in a file somewhere so that if such a crime was actually committed, they'd come back looking for you. The police have enough crimes that have actually occurred that they must investigate that they can't spend much time on so-and-so thinks his neighbor is plotting a crime. Conspiracy tends to be a charge made after the crime is committed, not before. About the only conspiracies that police investigate before a crime is committed are threats against the president and terrorist attacks.

It is not a crime to discuss crime hypothetically. People do it all the time. If a prosecutor tried to charge you with conspiracy, they would need more than just, you were heard in a public place saying, "Suppose someone wanted to kill his wife ..." They'd have to show that you actually bought the poison or hired a hit man or something of the sort. I suppose if your research includes buying bomb-making components to see what they look like and how they fit together, and you assemble a bomb in your garage, and you're overheard asking about Governor Jones travel schedule and security arrangements, and you rent an apartment overlooking the square where the governor plans to give a speech and the police find the place empty except for a chair and a sniper rifle, etc, the explanations might become more difficult.

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I have to wonder if "merely talking about" crimes, no matter what the level of detail, can result in a charge of conspiracy. Almost everyone talks about crimes at some level, because they are a matter of general interest. Those involved in the investigation of crimes talk about them in massive detail at great length. And crime writers research, talk about, and write about crimes extensively. All of this happens without anyone being accused of conspiracy. So even though merely discussing a crime might be considered conspiracy, I think you have to assume that the crime discussed would have to be committed before you would have any genuine cause for concern. Believe me, the thousands of people who write about crime research it, talk about it, and pick the brains of all kinds of experts in the field, all the time. They don't worry about this issue, and neither should you.

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Not online.

Try a writer's group, where it is absolutely and explicitly clear
that you are discussing this in the service of a story, and where
other folks are discussing things just as potentially problematic.
One writer I work with is writing a crime story and actually
paid a retired detective as a consultant to make sure she got her details
right. She interviewed him extensively and went over her story bit by bit to make sure it was feasible.
You also might find true-crime books (or blogs?) to be useful, where
someone else has already put down the details you need, and you can
adapt as necessary.

John Rogers, one of the creators of the late and much-lamented Leverage, sometimes jokes on his blog that the things he'd had to research online probably have him on every government watch list in existence, because Leverage was about five master criminals acting as Robin Hoods — committing elaborate cons and crimes to help innocent people.

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