D. Multi-state Conspiracies

• Library: Drug Litigation in South Carolina (SCBar) (2021 Ed.)

D. MULTI-STATE CONSPIRACIES

Generally, a state may not prosecute an individual for a crime committed outside its boundaries.²⁴⁰ However, a state may exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction when:

acts done outside a jurisdiction, but intended to produce and producing detrimental effects within it, justify a state in punishing the cause of the harm as if the defendant had been present at the effect, if the state should succeed in getting him within its power.²⁴¹

This is known as the "effects doctrine." "Knowledge alone is not enough to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction. The [State] must present evidence that [the] defendant intended to commit an act with the intent to have a detrimental effect within [South Carolina]."²⁴² Therefore, to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction the State must show the defendant intended a detrimental effect to occur in South Carolina.²⁴³ "The two key elements of that requirement are specific intent to act and the intent that the harm occur in South Carolina."²⁴⁴

Extraterritorial jurisdiction is not a component of subject matter jurisdiction, but it is a fundamental issue that may be raised by the parties or the court at any time during the proceedings, including for the first time on appeal or sua sponte by an appellate court.²⁴⁵ "The exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction implicates the state's sovereignty, a question so elemental that . . . it cannot be waived by conduct or consent."²⁴⁶

For example, in State v. Dudley,²⁴⁷ the defendant was convicted for trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. The defendant resided in Atlanta and her co-conspirators resided in Virginia. The co-conspirators traveled to Georgia, where they purchased cocaine from the defendant with the intent to sell the cocaine in Virginia. The co-conspirators were stopped and arrested in Anderson County on their way from Georgia to Virginia. The defendant never...