In what circumstances will a jury find a defendant guilty of a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice?

The third paragraph of the instruction erroneously suggests that in order to find the defendant guilty, the jury had to find that defendant was a member of the conspiracy at the time the substantive offense was committed. However, conspiracy is a crime in and of itself, separate and distinct from any substantive offenses which may be committed during the conspiracy's existence. United States v. Becker, 720 F.2d 1033, 1036 (9th Cir.1983). The jury was charged (without objection) that if they should find beyond a reasonable doubt that the existence of the conspiracy had been proven, and that during the existence of the conspiracy an overt act was knowingly done by one of the conspirators in furtherance of some object or purposes of the conspiracy, then proof of the conspiracy charge was complete as to every person found by the jury to have willfully been a member of the conspiracy at the time the overt act was committed. This instruction correctly stated the law and adequately encompassed defendant's claim that he could not be convicted unless the conspiracy was in existence and an overt act was committed while he was still a member of the conspiracy.

Accordingly, the district court properly rejected defendant's proposed instruction.