Accomplice Liability

Question 1

Parties to A Crime (Common Law)

Answer 1

Includes:

1. Principal in the first degree (person who actually engaged in the act or omission that constitutes the offense or who caused an innocent agent to do so).
2. Principal in second degree (person who aided, commanded, or encouraged the principal and WAS PRESENT at the crime)
3. Accessory before the fact (person who assists and encourages but WAS NOT present)
4. Accessory after the fact (person who, with knowledge that the other committed a felony, assisted him to escape arrest or punishment)

Required conviction of principal for conviction of accessory and the charged had to indicate the correct theory of liability (ex: principal or accessory)

Question 2

Parties to a Crime (Modern Statutes)

Answer 2

All agents can be found guilty of the principal offense

1. Principal: Person who commits the illegal act or who causes an innocent agent to do so; liable for principal crime
2. Accomplice (includes CL accessory before the fact): Person who aids or encourages principal to commit the illegal conduct; liable for principal crime if accomplice intended to aid or encourage crime
3. Accessory after the fact: person who aids another to escape knowing that he has committed a felony; liable for separate, less serious crime of being an accessory after the fact

Question 3

Mental State (Accomplice Liability)

Answer 3

Dual intent required; To be convicted of substantive crime as an accomplice, the accomplice must have:

1. The intent to assist the principal in commission of crime; and
2. the intent that the principal commit the substantive offense

If recklessness or negligence is the mens rea, most jxs will hold the intent element satisfied if the accomplice:

1. intended to facilitate the commission of the crime; and
2. acted the recklessness or negligence (whichever is required by the crime)

Note: Procuring an illegal item or selling at a higher price bc of the buyer’s purpose (charging arsonist $100 for gasoline) may constitute a sufficient “stake in the venture” to constitute intent.

Note: Responsible for other crimes he did or counseled and for any other crimes committed in the course of committing the crime contemplated to the same extent as the principal if they were probable or foreseeable.

Question 4

Exclusions from liability (accomplices)

Answer 4

A. Members of the class protected by a statue are excluded from accomplice liability

B. Parties excluded in statute definition not provided for in the statute are excluded from accomplice liability (ex: buyer in heroin sale statute)

C. Withdrawal: Cant be held guilty as an accomplice if you effectively withdrawal from the crime before it is committed; must occur before crime becomes unstoppable:

1. Repudiation is sufficient withdrawal for mere encouragement
2. Attempt to neutralize assistance is required if participation went beyond mere encouragement