Parties to crime - Next Generation Bar Exam

1. Who cannot be an accomplice to a crime even if the person encourages it?

   The victim of the crime, or a person the statute is designed to protect. For example, an underage participant in statutory rape is not an accomplice.

2. What is the effect of a defendant's mere presence at the scene of a crime?

   Mere presence, without assistance or encouragement, is not enough for accomplice liability. Presence combined with a prior agreement or other encouragement may suffice.

3. What were the four common-law categories of parties to a felony?

   Principal in the first degree, principal in the second degree, accessory before the fact, and accessory after the fact. Modern law has largely abolished the distinctions among the first three.

4. Under modern law, what is the effect of the principal's acquittal on the prosecution of an accomplice?

   It does not bar conviction of the accomplice. Standefer v. United States held that an aider and abettor may be convicted despite the principal's acquittal.

5. What must an accomplice do to withdraw effectively?

   Repudiate before the crime and neutralize prior assistance, or timely notify police or otherwise prevent the crime. Merely leaving is insufficient if earlier assistance remains effective.

6. What are the elements of accomplice liability?

   Aiding, abetting, or encouraging the principal, with the intent that the crime be committed. The accomplice must also have the mental state required for the underlying crime.

7. What are the elements of being an accessory after the fact?

   Knowledge that a felony was completed and assistance to the felon to avoid arrest, trial, or punishment. The accessory is not liable for the felony itself.

8. Under modern law, how are principals and accomplices treated?

   Both are liable for the crime itself. Accessories after the fact are treated separately and less severely.

9. Under the natural and probable consequences doctrine followed in many jurisdictions, for which additional crimes is an accomplice liable?

   Crimes by the principal that were reasonably foreseeable consequences of the crime the accomplice aided. The Model Penal Code rejects this doctrine.

10. Under the majority rule, what is the liability of a supplier who provides goods knowing the buyer will use them to commit a crime?

    The supplier is not an accomplice unless it intended to further the crime. Some jurisdictions punish knowing assistance as a separate offense, such as criminal facilitation.

11. A man agrees to and does stand lookout outside a house while his friend burglarizes it. Of what is the lookout guilty?

    Burglary, as an accomplice. Serving as a lookout with intent to further the crime is aiding and abetting.

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