State v. Blechman case brief

State v. Blechman case brief summary
50 A.2d 152 (1946)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Defendant sought review of the judgment from the Bergen County Court of Quarter Sessions (New Jersey), which convicted him of counseling another person to set fire to a dwelling house.

CASE FACTS
Defendant was convicted of counseling another person to set fire to a dwelling house. The other person did not ever burn the house.

DISCUSSION

• The court held that the solicitation itself was an act done toward the execution of the evil intent and was therefore indictable because an act done with a criminal intent was punishable by indictment. 
• The court held that the solicitation constituted a substantive crime in itself, and not an abortive attempt to perpetrate the crime solicited. 
• The court held that the state's evidence regarding defendant's intent to defraud the insurance company was irrelevant, so long as the solicitation itself was established. 
• The court found that defendant waived several of its grounds for reversal by failing to assign error in the appropriate manner.
• Accordingly, the court affirmed defendant's conviction.

CONCLUSION
The court affirmed defendant's conviction for counseling another person to set fire to a dwelling house because it was irrelevant that the person defendant counseled never actually set the house on fire.

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