Solicitation of Murder: When Just Asking Is the Crime
We tend to think that no matter what we say, we cannot get in trouble for it, because the First Amendment protects our freedom of speech. And while the First Amendment is very powerful and very valued, the fact is that there are times when “just words” carry serious criminal consequences.
For more information regarding Louisiana murder laws, please call our Shreveport murder defense attorney at the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today.
What Is Solicitation?
One such time that words alone are a crime is solicitation. Under La. R.S. 14:28.1, solicitation for murder is the intentional solicitation of another person to commit—or to cause to be committed—a first or second degree murder. In plain terms, the asking is the crime. The murder never has to happen, and no one ever has to be harmed. The penalty is steep: five to twenty years at hard labor.
Murder is treated differently from every other crime in this respect. Soliciting someone to commit a felony other than murder is a separate, far less serious offense in Louisiana called inciting a felony, which generally carries no more than two years. Solicitation for murder stands alone, with its own statute and its own hard-labor sentencing range.
The Request Must Be Serious
To be convicted, the solicitation must be intentional—an actual request made with the intent that a murder be committed. A joke, idle curiosity, or blowing off steam is not enough. Saying “I wonder what it would be like to kill Billy” is not solicitation, because it is not a serious request to commit the crime.
As you can tell, the language being used and the context in which it arises matters. Worded one way, a statement might be a serious, full-on request to commit a murder; worded differently, it may be “mulling the idea,” dark humor, or words spoken quickly out of anger. Whether the State can prove a genuinely intended request—rather than loose talk—is one of the most common battlegrounds in these cases.
No Consideration Requirement
Often, solicitation involves some form of payment—think of paying someone to commit a murder, or asking someone to rob a store and offering to let them keep half of what is stolen. But while that is common, it is not legally required. No money, property, or other consideration needs to be passed, offered, or accepted for the crime of solicitation for murder to be complete.
The Person Being Asked
It also does not matter whether the person you are asking believes you, agrees, or has any intention of actually obeying your request. The crime focuses on the person doing the soliciting—not on whether the other person takes the request seriously or would, or could, ever commit the murder. That is why solicitation charges so often grow out of conversations with undercover officers or informants who never had any intention of committing a crime.
No Planning Needed—and How Solicitation Differs From Conspiracy
Solicitation is complete upon the asking. You do not have to plan the murder or know anything about how, when, or where it would happen. If you ask someone to kill another person and they go on their way to carry out your wishes, you can be charged with solicitation even though you never worked out a single detail. You can also be charged if you ask someone to kill another person, and the person you asked takes no step to carry out your wishes. The asking itself is the central element of the offense, not what the person asked does in response to your request.
Solicitation is distinct from criminal conspiracy. Under La. R.S. 14:26, conspiracy requires an actual agreement between two or more people to commit a crime, plus an act in furtherance of that agreement by at least one of them. So if the person you solicit agrees and a step is taken toward the murder, the State can charge conspiracy to commit murder in addition to solicitation. And if the murder is actually carried out, Louisiana law treats the person who procured it as a principal to the murder itself—facing the same punishment as the person who committed it.
Contact a Louisiana Criminal Defense Lawyer Today
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