| Accomplice |
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An accomplice differs from an Accessory in that an accomplice is present at the actual crime, and could be prosecuted even if the main criminal is not charged or convicted. An accessory is generally not present at the actual crime, and may be subject to lesser penalties than an accomplice or principal. In older sources, an accomplice was often referred to as an Abettor . This term is not in active use, having been replaced by ''accomplice''. At law, an accomplice has the same degree of Guilt as the person he or she is assisting, is subject to Prosecution for the same crime, and faces the same criminal penalties. As such, the three accomplices to the bank robbery above can also be found guilty of armed robbery even though only one stole the money. The fairness of the doctrine that the accomplice is as guilty as the primary offender has been discussed many times, particularly in cases of Capital Crimes . On several occasions, accomplices have been prosecuted for Felony Murder even though the actual person who committed the murder died at the crime scene or otherwise did not face Capital Punishment . One of the most notorious cases of this type was the offender he could not be sentenced to death (he was released after serving ten years), but Bentley was hanged. The incident was dramatized in the film '' Let Him Have It '', which is what Bentley allegedly said to Craig during the incident, it being unclear whether he meant Craig shoot the officer or hand the gun to him. The Hanging of Bentley led to public outrage and the eventual abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom . In 1982 , the United States Supreme Court held that accomplices may not be executed for the capital crimes of other criminals, if there is no evidence that the accomplice knew or even suspected that the primary wrongdoer might commit murder. In ''Enmund v. Florida '', (1982), 458 U.S. 782, the accomplice was sitting in a car outside a house where a robbery was committed, and had no inkling that his partner in crime was going to kill the robbery victim. Some states, including the state of California, have a system that distinguishes between an accessory, an accomplice, and a principle (or co-principle) in a different way. In this system, the difference between an accessory and an accomplice is not as listed above. An accessory would ONLY be someone who aids and abets the principle (the person who committed the crime OR helped in the planning of the crime) to escape justice after the crime has been committed (there is no more accessory "before" and "after" the fact... what was once "accessory before the fact" is now just "co-principle", and what was once "accessory after the fact" is now just "accessory". An accomplice is NOT a formal legal term in many states... it is "legal slang", and denotes ONLY "an accessory or co-principle that agrees to testify against another principle in a court of law". |
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