United States v. Joyce
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
693 F.2d 838 (1982)
An undercover DEA agent offered to sell cocaine to Michael Dennis Joyce (defendant), a suspected drug distributor. Joyce brought purchase money to the agent's hotel room, but when the agent handed him a taped package and Joyce couldn't see the cocaine inside, he immediately handed it back. Joyce and the agent then repeatedly demanded to see the other's money or drugs first, neither backing down, until Joyce finally said he'd no longer deal with the agent regardless of the cocaine's quality, and left. He was arrested afterward and convicted of attempting to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.
Whether, to be guilty of an attempted crime, the defendant must have committed an overt act adapted to, approximating, and ordinarily likely to result in committing the crime.