People v. Ryan
Court of Appeals of New York
626 N.E.2d 51 (1993)
Ryan (defendant) ordered a shipment of hallucinogenic mushrooms and was arrested when a substitute box, arranged with police cooperation, was delivered to him; he was charged with attempted possession of a controlled substance weighing over a statutory threshold. The prosecution proved the box contained mushrooms weighing about two pounds with 796 milligrams of psilocybin in a sample, but offered no evidence about how much psilocybin a typical two-pound box would contain. The Appellate Division held that the statute's "knowingly" language applied only to possession, not to the weight element, and affirmed his conviction.
Whether the knowledge requirement in a criminal statute applies to all elements of the offense, including drug weight, absent clear evidence of a contrary legislative intent.