ACCESSORY, in law, one who is not the thief actor in an offense or present at its com mission, but still is connected with it in some other way. Accessories may become so before the fact or after the fact. Sir Matthew Hale defines an accessory before the fact as one who, being absent at the time of the crime committed, does yet procure, counsel or command another to commit a crime. If the procurer be present when the evil deed is being done, he is not an accessory, but a principal. An accessory after the fact is one who, knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the felon. In high treason of a pro nounced character there are no accessories all are principals. In petit treason, murder and felonies, there may be accessories; except only in those offenses which, by judgment of law, are sudden and unpremeditated, as manslaugh ter and the like, which, therefore, cannot have any accessories before the fact. So, too, in petit larceny and in all crimes under the degree of felony, there are no accessories either before or after the fact; but all persons concerned therein, if guilty at all, are principals (Blackst.
Comm., bk. iv, ch. iii). Presence and actual participation are necessary to constitute a per son an accessory. The mere fact of presence or failure to interfere to prevent the commis sion of a crime is not, alone, an indictable offense. The person must act in concert with the active party. He must by word or act con tribute to the felonious purpose. Presence need not be actual, it may be constructive. A man may commit a crime through the agency of an innocent person, but the agent cannot be con victed. Where an offense is committed within a State by means of an innocentagent, the em ployer is guilty as a principal, although he did no act in the State where the crime was com mitted, and at the time of the commission of the offense was in another State. (1 N. Y. 173 (s. c. 45 Am. Dec. 468) ; 123 Mass. 430).