Accomplice Liability

Accomplice liability is one of a number of ways that prosecutors can expand the scope of a crime and include more individuals who were potentially involved in the crime. Accomplice liability, which can also be called aiding and abetting or complicity, is based on making an individual who helps or even merely encourages the commission of a crime. Accomplice liability is sometimes confused with conspiracy in that they both require a number of people to work together in the commission of a crime. The difference between accomplice and conspiracy is that conspiracy requires an agreement whereas accomplice does not.

An accomplice must, in some way, actively participate in the commission of a crime, even if the person does not actually take part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who actually points the gun at the teller and asks for the money in the bank is guilty of armed robbery. Many bank robbers do not act alone though and so those that helped by playing the role of look out or providing the getaway car are accomplices, even though the actions taken by these people, without their buddy's robbing of a bank at gun point, do not constitute illegal actions or crimes.

Accomplices are different from accessories. Accessories are usually not actually present at the commission of the crime and are typically subject to lesser penalties than the accomplice or principal would receive. An accomplice is actually present when the crime is committed and can be prosecuted, potentially, even if the main criminal, known as the principal, is not charged or convicted.

Accomplice Liability

At law, an accomplice is assigned the same degree of guilt as the person who he or she assisted in the commission of the crime. The accomplice is also subject to prosecution for the same crime and faces the same criminal penalties.

Where the crime is available, aiding and abetting, or accomplice, generally requires three elements for successful prosecution. The prosecution must be able to prove that there was an underlying violation by a principal, the accomplice had knowledge of the violation and or the intent to facilitate the violation, and that the accomplice assisted the principal in the criminal violation.

Accessories differ from accomplices in that they are assigned a lower level of guilt and cannot be prosecuted or convicted if the principal is not convicted. The accessory also cannot be convicted of a crime greater than that of the principal or receive a harsher punishment.

Accomplice Liability
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The Milwaukee criminal defense lawyers of Kohler & Hart are experienced at defending all types of criminal liability.

Joseph Devine