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89 U. Pa. L. Rev. 581 (1940-1941)
Parties to Crime

handle is hein.journals/pnlr89 and id is 599 raw text is: March, i941 PARTIES TO CRIME ROLLIN M. PERKINS t I. TERMINOLOGY In the field of felony the common law divided guilty parties into principals and accessories.1 According to the ancient analysis only the actual perpetrator of the felonious deed was a principal. Other guilty parties were called accessories, and to distinguish among these with reference to time and place they were divided into three classes: (I) accessories before the fact, (2) accessories at the fact,2 and (3) acces- sories after the fact. At a relatively early time the party who was originally considered an accessory at the fact, ceased to be classed in the accessorial group and was labeled a principal. To distinguish him from the actual perpetrator of the crime he was called a principal in the second degree.3 Thereafter, in felony cases there were two kinds of principals, first degree and second degree, and two kinds of accessories, before the fact and after the fact. As applied to homicide cases, the common law of parties was summarized in this form by the Supreme Court of North Carolina: The parties to a homicide are: (I) principals in the first degree, being those whose unlawful acts or omissions cause the death of the victim, without the intervention of any responsible agent; (2) principals in the second degree, being those who are actually or constructively present at the scene of the crime, aiding and abetting therein, but not directly causing the death; (3) acces- sories before the fact, being those who have conspired with the actual perpetrator to commit the homicide, or some other unlawful act that would naturally result in a homicide, or who have pro- cured, instigated, encouraged, or advised him to commit it, but who were neither actually nor constructively present when it was committed; and (4) accessories after the fact, being those who, t-A.B., I9IO, University of Kansas; J.D., 1912, Stanford University; S.J.D., 191i6, Harvard University; Professor of Law, State University of Iowa; author, Iowa Criminal Justice (1932), Cases on Criminal Procedure (3d ed. 1929); member, Iowa and California State Bars, The American Bar Association, The American Law Insti- tue; contributor to various legal periodicals. i. Etymologically the noun, or substantive, is primarily accessary and the adjec- tive accessory; but present usage favors accessory for both. WEBSTER'S NEW INT. DIcTIONARY (1934). '2. I HALE P. C. *437; 2 STEPHEN, HISTORY OF THE CRIMINAL LAW OF ENGLAND (1883) 230; Matters of the Crown Happening at Salop, i Plo. 97, 99 n., 75 Eng. Rep. R. 152, 157 (553); United States v. Hartwell, 26 Fed. Cas. 196, No. 15,318 (C. C. Mass. 1869) ; State v. Scott, 80 Conn. 317, 323, 68 Atl. 258 (1907). Sometimes by statute, the phrase accessory during the fact is used to include the accessory before the fact and the ancient accessory at the fact, with the provision that he shall be tried and punished as a principal. See 2 CoLo. ANN. STAT. (Courtright's Mills, 1930) § 1749. 3. Ibid. (581)

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