People v. Johnson
Supreme Court of California
303 P.3d 379 (2013)
Gang members Corey Johnson, Joseph Dixon, and David Lee, Jr. (defendants) were convicted of multiple murders, attempted murders, and conspiracy charges arising from violent gang-related shootings, including conspiracy counts predicated on gang participation, assault, robbery, and murder; an intermediate appellate court held that conspiracy to commit the crime of "active participation in a criminal street gang" was not itself a valid crime, while upholding the other underlying conspiracy convictions, and the state sought and obtained review.
Whether active members of a criminal street gang can be convicted of conspiracy to commit the substantive crime of gang participation, based on an agreement to commit a gang-related felony with knowledge of the gang's ongoing criminal activity.