Nature of Participatory Criminal Liability
Criminal liability is personal, but a felony may be committed through several persons whose acts differ in timing, character, and importance. The RPC therefore distinguishes among those who execute the felony, those who cooperate in its execution, and those who intervene only after its commission.
Participation is not based on status, relationship, suspicion, or association with the offender. It rests on a voluntary act or omission connected to the felony and accompanied by the mental element required for the participant's role.
The basic inquiry is whether the accused contributed to the criminal act before, during, or after its commission, and whether that contribution shows execution, indispensable cooperation, secondary cooperation, or post-offense assistance.
In intentional felonies, participation usually requires knowledge of the criminal design and intent to join, aid, or benefit from it. In culpable felonies, liability is based on each person's own negligence, because conspiracy and intentional community of design are generally incompatible with crimes by imprudence.
Persons Criminally Liable
For grave and less grave felonies, the RPC recognizes principals, accomplices, and accessories. For light felonies, only principals and accomplices are criminally liable, because the law does not punish accessory participation in light offenses.
The classification determines both the theory of liability and the penalty. Principals bear the penalty prescribed for the felony, accomplices are generally punished by a penalty one degree lower, and accessories by a penalty two degrees lower, subject to specific statutory rules and exceptions.
The label used in the information is not controlling if the facts alleged and proved establish the accused's true participation. However, conviction must still respect due process, because an accused may not be convicted on a theory of participation that is not fairly embraced by the charge and the evidence.
| Participant | Time of intervention | Nature of participation | Controlling idea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal | Before or during the felony | Executes, induces, forces, or gives indispensable cooperation | The act is essential to the commission or decision to commit the felony |
| Accomplice | Before or during the felony | Cooperates by previous or simultaneous acts | The aid is intentional but not indispensable |
| Accessory | After the felony | Profits, conceals, destroys evidence, harbors, assists escape, or gives specified post-offense aid | The felony is already committed and the participation is subsequent |
Principals
Principals are the primary offenders because their acts directly bring about the felony or make its commission possible in a decisive way. The law treats as principals those who take a direct part in execution, those who directly force or induce others to commit the felony, and those who cooperate by an act without which the felony would not have been accomplished.
A principal by direct participation personally performs acts of execution. The act need not be the final blow or final operative act, because one who joins in the execution of a common criminal design may be a principal even if another participant physically completes the felony.
A principal by inducement becomes liable when the inducement is so strong and influential that it becomes the determining cause of the crime. Advice, command, reward, promise, or moral pressure is not enough unless it actually moves the material executor to commit the felony.
A principal by indispensable cooperation performs an act essential to the commission of the felony. The cooperation is indispensable when the crime could not have been committed in the manner planned without that act, even if the cooperating offender did not personally perform the acts of execution.
Mere presence at the scene does not make one a principal. Presence becomes criminal participation when it is intended to give aid, encouragement, intimidation, lookout support, reinforcement, or assurance to the actual executors.
Accomplices
An accomplice cooperates in the execution of the felony by previous or simultaneous acts but does not perform an act of execution, does not determine the criminal decision, and does not supply indispensable cooperation.
The requisites of accomplice liability are a criminal design by the principal, knowledge of that design by the accomplice, and intentional cooperation by acts that facilitate the commission of the felony. The cooperation must have a relation to the offense actually committed.
Accomplice liability occupies the middle ground between principal liability and mere knowledge. It punishes aid that is real and voluntary but not essential enough to make the accused a principal.
When the evidence shows only passive presence, silence, fear, or failure to prevent the crime, accomplice liability does not arise unless the law imposes a specific duty to act or the conduct shows intentional cooperation.
Accessories
An accessory intervenes after the felony has been committed, with knowledge of its commission, and without having participated as principal or accomplice. The accessory's liability is derivative in the sense that it presupposes a completed punishable felony by another person, but it is still based on the accessory's own post-offense act.
Accessory participation includes profiting from the effects of the crime, assisting the offender to profit from them, concealing or destroying the body of the crime or its effects or instruments to prevent discovery, and harboring, concealing, or assisting the escape of the principal in the cases specified by law.
Harboring or assisting escape does not make every helper an accessory in every felony. The RPC limits this mode by considering either the official position of the accessory or the gravity and character of the principal's offense.
Certain close relatives are exempt from accessory liability because the law recognizes the impulse of family solidarity. The exemption does not apply when the relative profits from the effects of the crime or assists the offender to profit from them.
Conspiracy as Collective Participation
Conspiracy exists when two or more persons agree concerning the commission of a felony and decide to commit it. It is both a punishable act in the exceptional cases where the law so provides and, more commonly, a manner of establishing collective liability for the felony actually committed.
As a rule, conspiracy and proposal to commit a felony are not punishable unless a law specially penalizes them. This rule reflects the principle that criminal law generally punishes external acts, not mere criminal thoughts or unexecuted intentions.
When conspiracy is proved as the mode of participation in a completed or attempted felony, the act of one conspirator is the act of all. Each conspirator becomes liable as a principal because each has adopted the common criminal design and cooperated in its execution.
Conspiracy may be express or implied. Express conspiracy is shown by direct proof of agreement; implied conspiracy is inferred from coordinated acts before, during, and after the offense that reveal unity of purpose, concerted action, and concurrence of sentiment.
The agreement need not be long-standing or formal. It may arise at the moment of execution if the participants simultaneously decide to pursue the same unlawful objective and act together to accomplish it.
Conspiracy must be proved with the same degree of certainty as the crime itself. It cannot be presumed from companionship, relationship, community of interest, presence at the scene, or knowledge that a crime is being committed.
A conspirator is liable only for acts done in furtherance of the conspiracy or as the natural and logical consequence of the common design. An act that is a personal frolic, foreign to the plan, or clearly outside the agreed criminal objective does not automatically bind the others.
Where conspiracy is not established, each accused is liable only for the act personally performed and for the participation actually proved. The failure to prove conspiracy does not necessarily acquit all accused, but it prevents the wholesale attribution of one participant's act to the rest.
Proposal to Commit a Felony
Proposal exists when a person who has decided to commit a felony proposes its execution to another. It requires a firm criminal resolution by the proposer and a communication inviting another person to join or carry out the felony.
Proposal is distinct from conspiracy because conspiracy requires agreement and decision by at least two persons, while proposal may be complete upon the proposer's communication even if the other person rejects it.
Like conspiracy as an independent offense, proposal is punishable only when the law specially penalizes it. Outside those exceptional cases, an unaccepted proposal may be morally blameworthy but is not by itself a felony under the RPC.
Limits on Participatory Liability
Participation must be linked to the felony charged. A person who agreed to one offense is not automatically liable for a different offense committed by another unless the latter offense was within the common design or was a foreseeable and necessary incident of carrying it out.
Withdrawal may avoid liability only when it occurs before the felony is committed and is accompanied by acts that effectively dissociate the accused from the criminal design or prevent the commission of the offense. A silent change of mind after joining the plan is ordinarily insufficient.
Criminal liability does not arise from mere failure to report a crime already committed, unless a specific law punishes the omission or the person's conduct falls within accessory liability. Moral disapproval and penal liability remain distinct.
In special penal laws, the statute controls the persons punished and the manner of participation. RPC principles on principals, accomplices, accessories, conspiracy, and proposal may apply suppletorily only when compatible with the special law and the nature of the offense.
Practical Effect of Classification
The classification of participation affects the imposable penalty, the required mental element, the necessary proof, and the availability of defenses. A principal is tied to the execution or indispensable cause of the felony, an accomplice to intentional but secondary aid, and an accessory to punishable assistance after the fact.
The most important dividing line between principal and accomplice is indispensability or direct execution. The most important dividing line between accomplice and accessory is timing, because the accomplice aids before or during the felony while the accessory acts only after its commission.
The most important effect of conspiracy is that it removes the need to identify which conspirator performed each specific act of execution, but it does not remove the need to prove intentional participation in the common criminal design.