ACCESSARY

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ACCESSARY

ACCESSARY, criminal law. He who is not the chief actor in the perpetration of the offence, nor present at its performance, but is some way concernedtherein, either before or after the fact committed. 2. An accessary before the fact, is one who being absent at the timeof, the crime committed, yet procures, counsels, or commands another tocommit it. 1 Hale, P. C. 615. It is, proper to observe that when the act iscommitted through the agency of a person who has no legal discretion nor awill, as in the case of a child or an insane person, the incitor, thoughabsent when the crime was committed, will be considered, not an accessary,for none can be accessary to the acts of a madman, but a principal in thefirst degree. Fost. 340; 1 P. C. 118. 3. An accessary after the fact, is one who knowing a felony to havebeen committed, receives, relieves, comforts, or assists the felon. 4 Bl.Com. 37. 4. No one who is a principal (q.v.) can be an accessary. 5. In certain crimes, there can be no accessaries; all who areconcerned are principals, whether they were present or absent at the time oftheir commission. These are treason, and all offences below the degree offelony. 1 Russ. 21, et seq.; 4 Bl. Com. 35 to 40; 1 Hale, P. C. 615; 1 Vin.Abr. 113; Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 29, s. 16; such is the English Law. Butwhether it is law in the United States appears not to be determined asregards the cases of persons assisting traitors. Serg. Const. Law, 382; 4Cranch, R. 472, 501; United States v. Fries, Parnphl. 199. 6. It is evident there can be no accessary when there is no principal;if a principal in a transaction be not liable under our laws, no one can becharged as a more accessary to him. 1 W.& M. 221. 7. By the rules of the common law, accessaries cannot be tried withouttheir consent, before the principals. Foster, 360. The evils resulting fromthis rule, are stated at length in the 8th vol. of Todd's Spencer, pp. 329,330.

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