Consider some other class of crime. If I said, "the matter of whether a crime is premediated, and the fact pattern of that crime, are orthogonal attributes."

Consider some other class of crime. If I said, "the matter of whether a crime is premediated, and the fact pattern of that crime, are orthogonal attributes." You'd say: "That's not true - the fact pattern is how we determine whether there was evidence of premeditation." It's the same for conspiracies. The fact pattern is not orthogonal; it's integral.