Posted: May 18th, 2017

Holly often visited her ailing uncle in prison. She was having a drink one afternoon and told the barkeep at the local pub that on Sundays she visited the penitentiary. The bartender asked if, while she was visiting, she would visit his uncle and give him the weather report. Holly thought this was a bit odd, but the bartender assured her that his uncle used to travel a lot and just liked to hear about the weather in cities he knew. The bartender promised to provide her the weather information every week if she would give his uncle the message.

Holly often visited her ailing uncle in prison. She was having a drink one afternoon and told the barkeep at the local pub that on Sundays she visited the penitentiary. The bartender asked if, while she was visiting, she would visit his uncle and give him the weather report. Holly thought this was a bit odd, but the bartender assured her that his uncle used to travel a lot and just liked to hear about the weather in cities he knew. The bartender promised to provide her the weather information every week if she would give his uncle the message. The weather reports Holly later conveyed seemed to make the bartender’s uncle very happy. Holly was ultimately charged with “knowingly assisting organized crime.” The government asserts that the weather reports were actually coded messages about the activities of a local crime syndicate. Holly claimed she did not know anything about any criminal activity, and the prosecution does not challenge her claim. If she truly did not know about the secret nature of the messages, could she be convicted? (A) Yes, because she knew that she was delivering information, which in fact assisted the syndicate. (B) Yes, because the knowledge requirement includes an objective evaluation, and a reasonable person would have known that these messages were not innocuous. (C) No, because Holly did not in fact know that the weather reports were assisting the criminal activity. (D) No, because Holly should only be held liable if she intended to assist the syndicate.