# Salinas v. United States, 522 U.S. 52 (1997)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/courtlistener-salinas-v-us-522-us-52/

Supreme Court decision of December 2, 1997 holding that a defendant may be convicted of RICO conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. 1962(d) without himself committing or agreeing to commit the two predicate acts a substantive violation requires.

Decided December 2, 1997; No. 96-738. Salinas, a deputy sheriff in Hidalgo County, Texas, was convicted of RICO conspiracy and federal bribery in a scheme with the sheriff to take bribes from a federal prisoner housed in the county jail. The decision resolved a conflict among the Courts of Appeals.

The Court held that a conspirator need not himself commit or agree to commit the two or more predicate acts required for a substantive violation of section 1962(c); "it suffices that he adopt the goal of furthering or facilitating the criminal endeavor." (522 U.S. at 65.) The conviction was affirmed.

The case involves county-jail bribery, not a named crime family. CourtListener's text of the holding paragraph contains OCR errors, so only the clean clause is quoted.

## Sources

- CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/118151/salinas-v-united-states/