Also known as: accomplice participation · complicity · accomplice liability
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Liability imposed on a person who aids, encourages, or facilitates another's commission of a crime with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the offense. The doctrine reaches conduct that would establish complicity if the crime were completed and extends to inchoate forms such as attempt to aid or solicitation even when the principal never acts.
Phuong Pham, an emergency-room nurse, agreed to help her colleague Leo steal a patient's ring by sedating the patient. Phuong assembled unmarked vials of controlled sedatives and left them in an unlocked supply closet at the agreed time. Leo was suspended before he could act and never attempted the theft. Under the rule treating purposeful assistance as attempt, Phuong's conduct constitutes attempt to aid the theft even though Leo never appeared.
Preston Pratt agreed to drive his friend Max to rob late-night passengers on an isolated road. Before any passenger was picked up, Preston told Max he was backing out, took the car keys, and left the area. Max later found another ride and committed a robbery alone. Preston's timely withdrawal wholly deprived his earlier agreement of effectiveness, terminating his complicity before the offense occurred.
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Penelope Price agreed to help her coworker Marco poison their supervisor. Penelope secretly mixed a harmful substance into an unlabeled spice container and placed it on the prep line for Marco to use. Marco lost his nerve and never used the spice. Penelope's purposeful preparation and placement of the tainted spice constitutes solicitation because she commanded and facilitated specific conduct that would establish complicity in the poisoning.
Perry Pratt directed migrant workers including Luis to ride unrestrained in the open bed of an overloaded truck with known brake defects. Miguel drove as instructed and Luis was ejected and killed. Perry's order and authorization of the dangerous practice makes him an accomplice in the resulting homicide even though he never touched the truck.
Priscilla Parks, an investment analyst, passed material nonpublic information to her brother so he could trade profitably. The brother executed trades on the tip. Priscilla's knowing provision of the information establishes her complicity in the securities violation even though she did not personally trade.
Pearl Porter rode with two men who planned to rob a store. Knowing their intent, she handed one man a loaded pistol from the glove compartment moments before the robbery. The man used the gun during the robbery. Pearl's purposeful supply of the weapon makes her an accomplice to the armed robbery.
No. An accomplice may be convicted on proof of the commission of the offense and of his complicity even if the principal has not been prosecuted, has been convicted of a different offense, or has been acquitted.
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Yes. Under modern attempt principles a person who engages in conduct designed to aid another to commit a crime is guilty of attempt even though the crime is not committed or attempted by the other person.
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The defendant must wholly deprive the complicity of effectiveness or give timely warning to law enforcement or otherwise make proper effort to prevent the commission of the offense.
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Yes. It is immaterial that the actor fails to communicate with the person solicited if the conduct was designed to effect such communication.
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…on the side of rejecting capital punishment for the crime at issue.[^maj-15] Society's rejection of the death penalty for accomplice liability in felony murders is also indicated by the sentencing decisions that juries have made. As we have previously observed, " [t]he jury . . . is a significant and reliable objective index of…