If a suspect supplies a known fraudulent prescription and an officer orders the pharmacist to fill it, does the factual impossibility defense apply?
<p>If a suspect supplies a known fraudulent prescription and a police officer orders the pharmacist to fill it, does the factual impossibility defense apply for the suspect? This act was impossible to complete without the police officer.</p>

<p>For the record, factual impossibility is rarely a defense to a crime. In <em>United States v. Thomas</em> the court decided that men who believed they were raping a drunken unconscious women were guilty of attempted rape, even though the woman was dead at the time.</p>

<p>In this case there is no facts that made the offense impossible to commit. The suspect clearly submitted a false prescription and obtained the drugs he or she wished to obtain. There is no impossibility. Instead the police officer, as the saying goes, has the suspect "dead to rights".</p>

<p>This is not legal advice. Consult an attorney for that.</p>

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