United States v. Feola

Feola and three others (defendants) planned to rip off buyers in a fake heroin sale, intending to substitute sugar for the drugs and simply take the buyers' money if they became suspicious. The buyers turned out to be undercover federal agents; when one agent grew suspicious and drew his gun, he prevented an assault on a fellow agent. The defendants were charged with both the substantive crime of assaulting a federal officer and conspiracy to commit that crime. They were convicted on both counts at trial. The Second Circuit affirmed the substantive convictions but reversed the conspiracy convictions because the jury had not been told it needed to find the defendants knew their victim was a federal officer.