Group Criminality Flashcards
Accomplice Liability
Common Law
A person is liable for a crime as an accomplice if she intentionally assists another in committing a substantive offense.
An accomplice is also liable for any other offense that is the natural and probable consequence of the crime in which she served as an accoplice.
The term assists encompasses engaging in physical conduct, exercising psychological influence, and in some circumstances, failing to act.
Accomplice Liability Elements
Common Law
A person is liable for the substantive crime as an accomplice if she
Actus Reus
- aids another or
- solicits, incites or encourages another, or
- fails to prevent another from committing a crime despite a duty to act
Mens Rea
- with the intent to assist the other
- and with the intent that such assistance result in the commission of the crime
Accomplice Liability Elements
MPC
A person is liable for the substantive crime as an accomplice if she
Actus Reus
- aids or attempts to aid another or
- solicits or agrees to aid or
- fails to prevent another from committing a crime despite a duty to act
Mens Rea
- with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of a crime
Accomplice Liability Elements
Natural and Probably Consequences Doctrine
An accomplice is accountable for any other crime the principal commits if it results from the natural and probable consequenses of the original crime.
Not in the MPC.
Defenses to Accomplice Liability
Common Law
Legislative-Exemption Rule
A person may not be prosecuted as an accomplice in the commision of a crime if he is a member of the class of persons for whom the statute prohibiting the conduct was enacted to protect.
Example: a minor can’t be an accomplice to statutory rape
Defenses to Accomplice Liability
Common Law
Abandonment
A person can eliminate liability as an accomplice for the subsequent criminal acts of the principal if she abandons participation in the crime.
To do so, she must tell the principal she is withdrawing and try to neutralize the effects of her prior assistance voluntarily and completely.
Accomplice Liability
MPC
A person is guilty of an offense if it is committed by his own conduct or by the conduct of another person for which he is legally accountable, or both.
Accomplice Liability
MCP
Legal Accountability
A person is legally accountabily for the conduct of another person when
- acting with the kind of culpability that is sufficient for the commission of the offense, he causes an innocent or irresponsible person to engage in such conduct or
- he is made accountable for the conduct of such other person by the Code or the law defining the offense (vicarious or strict liability) or
- he is an accomplice of such other person in the commission of the offense
Accomplice Liability
MPC
Accomplice
A person is an accomplice of another person in the commission of an offense if
- with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of the offense, he
- solicits such other person to commit it, or
- aids or agrees or attempts to aid such other person in planning or committing it or
- (iii) having a legal duty to prevent the commission of the offense, fails to make proper effort so to do; or
- `his conduct is expressly declared by law to establish his complicity
Conspiratorial Liability
Sources
The common law and the MPC did not recongnize conspiratorial liability. It’s federal law, although some states now recognize it.
Conspiratorial Liability
Pinkerton Doctrine
A conspirator is liable for a substantive offense committed by a co-conspirator if
- the conspirator as not taken affirmative action to demonstrate withdrawal from the conspiracy and
- the crime was done in furtherance of the conspiracy and
- the crime fell within the scope of he unlawful project and
- the crime was reasonably foreserable as a necessary and natural consequence of the agreement.
Conspiratorial Liability
Abandonment Defense
If a person voluntarily and completely leaves a conspiracy, she won’t be liable for crimes the group commits after she leaves.
Accomplice v. Conspiratorial Liability
In most cases where there are two defendants, the outcome is the same if one uses accomplice liability or conspiratorial liability.
In practice, the real use of conspiratorial liability has been in the context of large conmspiracies.
By making less culpable participants in a conspiracy liable for the crimes committed by more culpable participants, it provides leverage for law enforcement seeking to break up the conspiracy or prosecute the conspirators further up the chain.
