Boyd v. Commonwealth

The answer to the question presented in this criminal appeal will determine to what extent the General Assembly changed the common law with the 1985 enactment of Code § 18.2-23.1, dealing with a prohibition against convictions for both a completed substantive offense and an underlying conspiracy.

In April 1985, defendant Ivy Thomas Boyd was charged in the Circuit Court of the City of Chesapeake in separate indictments with distribution of cocaine and conspiracy to commit that offense. In August 1985, defendant was found guilty in a single bench trial of both charges and subsequently was…