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At common law, criminal conspiracy is an agreement to accomplish an unlawful purpose, or to do a lawful act by criminal or unlawful means, or for an illegal, fraudulent, malicious, or corrupt purpose or for a purpose which has a tendency to prejudice the public in general. As otherwise stated, a criminal conspiracy is a combination by two or more persons to accomplish a criminal or unlawful act or to do a lawful act by criminal or unlawful means. Also, a criminal conspiracy is a corrupt combination to accomplish a criminal or unlawful purpose by any means or to accomplish any purpose by criminal or unlawful means.

The gist or essence of the offense is an unlawful combination and agreement,or the entering into of an illegal scheme or design between individuals. Because a combination results from an agreement, in order to be a conspiracy there must be a meeting of the minds, that is, a unity of design and purpose; however, it is not necessary that a formal agreement be shown.

A criminal conspiracy is a distinct substantive offense, complete when the combination is formed or corrupt agreement is entered into, without the necessity of the commission of an overt act in furtherance of the plan and no matter by what means the conspiracy was intended to be effected.

A criminal conspiracy is to accomplish an act; the act is to be accomplished in the future. The act intended need not be punishable by indictment, and the crime may consist of a conspiracy to do things which are not themselves criminal if done by one person.A person cannot be guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime which has already been committed.

Because one person cannot conspire or form a combination with him- or herself, the crime of conspiracy necessarily requires the participation of at least two persons.As otherwise stated, the gravamen of the crime of conspiracy is an illegal scheme or design harbored by at least two persons.

Under the so-called "concert of action rule," an agreement by two persons to commit a particular crime cannot be prosecuted as a conspiracy when the crime is of such a nature as to necessarily require the participation of two persons for its commission.

The rule does not apply if more parties participate in a conspiracy than are legally necessary to the commission of the substantive offense contemplated by the conspiracy, or if the substantive offense has not been committed. Also, crimes relating to narcotics do not fall within the rule. A defendant who distributes a number of controlled dangerous substances in accordance with a single unlawful agreement commits but one crime: common-law conspiracy.

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No overt act in furtherance of the unlawful agreement is required to support a conspiracy conviction.—Walker v. State, 144 Md. App. 505, 798 A.2d 1219 (2002).

Requirement of conspiracy that there must be a meeting of the minds, a unity of purpose and design, means that the parties to a conspiracy, at the very least, must: (1) have given sufficient thought to the matter, however briefly or even impulsively, to be able mentally to appreciate or articulate the object of the conspiracy, the objective to be achieved or the act to be committed; and (2) whether informed by words or by gesture, understand that another person also has achieved that conceptualization and agrees to cooperate in the achievement of that objective or the commission of that act.—Mitchell v. State, 363 Md. 130, 767 A.2d 844 (2001).