United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1976-01-12
21usc846: author: Astra4 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md)
Case and law context
Role: applied; posture: Appeal from attempted distribution conviction; result: claimant-lost; claim:
Uncertainty
None recorded
Misfit
Intent is established but the objective conduct is insufficient under the cited circuit approach. The substitute drug is evidence with different polarity for different issues, not a universal impossibility defense.
Claimant outcome refers to the prosecuting government, not the defendant-appellant; remanded and mixed retain unresolved or split dispositions.
B · Case × element grid
Top-level elements follow claim order in panels of up to six elements. Case rows repeat across panels. Every recorded block retains its holding and basis; multiple blocks are not merged into a case-level verdict. ✓ satisfied · ✗ not satisfied · ○ not reached · · not addressed. Muted blocks are not counted. Sub-element evidence remains on case and element pages.
Elements 1–6 of 8
| Case | Identified offense in Subchapter I | Agreement of two or more persons to the unlawful object | Knowledge of the unlawful agreement and objective | Knowing and voluntary participation in the agreement | Withdrawal before the applicable limitations period | Intent to commit the identified object offense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States v. Oviedo — 525 F.2d 881 (1976) · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1976 (21usc846: author: Astra4 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md)) | · not addressed | · not addressed | · not addressed | · not addressed | · not addressed |
Elements 7–8 of 8
| Case | Conduct beyond preparation strongly corroborating intent | Object-offense penalty incorporation |
|---|---|---|
| United States v. Oviedo — 525 F.2d 881 (1976) · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1976 (21usc846: author: Astra4 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md)) | · not addressed |
Instances and excluded annotation blocks
| Case | Element | Holding and scope | Pattern | Exact source quotations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States v. Oviedo — 525 F.2d 881 (1976) · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1976 — satisfied · proved (21usc846: author: Astra4 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md)) | Intent to commit the identified object offense | satisfied Counted merits instance applied / merits basis: proved The court expressly accepts the jury’s belief finding; criminal intent alone still does not establish the required objective step. | belief/non-narcotic-substitute-believed-heroin | Oviedo sold a substance he thought to be heroin, which in reality was an uncontrolled substance.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f2d_525.jsonl#/f2d/525/0881-01; Unicode character offsets [2033:2129] (end exclusive); SHA-256 8166eb191075c37bba45d8e4131a1c603e57d5871017d0a0e49f59610b9c1979.We thus take as fact Oviedo’s belief that the substance was heroin.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f2d_525.jsonl#/f2d/525/0881-01; Unicode character offsets [1922:1989] (end exclusive); SHA-256 8166eb191075c37bba45d8e4131a1c603e57d5871017d0a0e49f59610b9c1979. |
| United States v. Oviedo — 525 F.2d 881 (1976) · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1976 — not · no-evidence (21usc846: author: Astra4 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md)) | Conduct beyond preparation strongly corroborating intent | not Counted merits instance applied / merits basis: no-evidence The Fifth Circuit reverses under its objective-corroboration approach on this record. It does not announce that every sham-drug transaction makes attempt impossible. | objective-corroboration/equivocal-substitute-sale | First, Oviedo told the agent that the substance he was selling was heroin, and second, portions of the substance were concealed in a television set.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f2d_525.jsonl#/f2d/525/0881-01; Unicode character offsets [9876:10024] (end exclusive); SHA-256 8166eb191075c37bba45d8e4131a1c603e57d5871017d0a0e49f59610b9c1979.Oviedo sold a substance he thought to be heroin, which in reality was an uncontrolled substance.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f2d_525.jsonl#/f2d/525/0881-01; Unicode character offsets [2033:2129] (end exclusive); SHA-256 8166eb191075c37bba45d8e4131a1c603e57d5871017d0a0e49f59610b9c1979.We cannot conclude that the objective acts of Oviedo apart from any indirect evidence of intent mark his conduct as criminal in nature.Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f2d_525.jsonl#/f2d/525/0881-01; Unicode character offsets [10599:10734] (end exclusive); SHA-256 8166eb191075c37bba45d8e4131a1c603e57d5871017d0a0e49f59610b9c1979. |
Court interpretations recorded from this case
interpretation
In making that determination, we recognized that in order to be guilty of an attempt, the objective conduct of the defendant must strongly corroborate the firmness of the defendant’s criminal intent.
United States v. Oviedo — 525 F.2d 881 (1976) · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1976 (21usc846: author: Astra4 · QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/wave2-cases-QA2-crosscheck.md))
In making that determination, we recognized that in order to be guilty of an attempt, the objective conduct of the defendant must strongly corroborate the firmness of the defendant’s criminal intent.Source:
docroot/ir/caselaw/f2d_525.jsonl#/f2d/525/0881-01; Unicode character offsets [11448:11647] (end exclusive); SHA-256 8166eb191075c37bba45d8e4131a1c603e57d5871017d0a0e49f59610b9c1979.(formerly `variant preparation/insufficient`) Joyce found travel, available money and preliminary dealings insufficient on its record when the defendant refused the proposed purchase before a substantial step. (formerly `variant objective-corroboration/equivocal`) Oviedo reversed where selling a nonnarcotic substitute and other acts were equivocal under the Fifth Circuit test; intent alone cannot supply the act. These are circuit-specific applications, not universal rules that travel never suffices, abandonment excuses an already completed attempt, or sham drugs always make attempt impossible. Assess intent and step together in context.