The Plot That Never Happened

A man associated with an organised-crime family set out to have a suspected police informant killed. He recruited members of a street gang for the job and gave them a loaded revolver and a car. They watched the target but abandoned the first attempt because witnesses were present; when they set out again the next day, police arrested them on the way. He was convicted of attempted murder in aid of racketeering and of using a firearm during a 'crime of violence', which carries a heavy mandatory sentence. The defence argued that the underlying state murder law can be broken by an omission — simply failing to act when under a legal duty — so it does not necessarily involve the use of physical force and cannot count as a crime of violence.