ACCOMPLICE (Lat. ad and ccmipli care—con, with, together, plicare, to fold, to wrap,—to fold together).
In Criminal Law. One who is in some way concerned in the commission of a crime, though not as a principal.
The term in its fulness includes in its meaning all persons who have been concerned in the com mission of a crime, all pargieepee criminis, whether they are considered in strict legal propriety as prin cipals in the first or second degree, or merely as ac cessories before or after the fact. Fost. Cr. Cas. 341; 1 Russell, Crimes, 21; 4 Blackstone, Comm. 331; 1 Phillipps, Ev. 28; Merlin, Report., Complice.
It has been questioned, whether one who was an accomplice to a suicide can be punished as such. A case occurred in Prussia where a soldier, at the re-. quest of his comrade, had cut the latter in pieces; for this he was tried capitally. In the year 1817, young woman named Leruth received a recompense for aiding a man to kill himself. He put the point of a bietoury on his naked breast, and used the hand of the young woman to plunge it with greater force into his bosom ; hearing some noise, he ordered her away. The man, receiving effectual aid, was soon cured of the wound which had been inflicted; and she was tried and convicted of having inflicted the wound, and punished by ten years' imprison mont. Lepage, Science du Droie, ch. 2, art. 3, 0 5. The case of Saul, the King of Israel, and his armor hearer (1 Sim. xxxi. 4), and of David and the
Amalekite (2 Sam. i. 2-16), will doubtless occur to the reader.
In Massachusetts, it has been held, that, if one counsels another to commit suicide, he is principal in the murder ; for it is a presumption of law, that advioe has the influence and effect intonded by the adviser, unless it is shown to have been otherwise, as, for example, that it was received with scoff or manifestly rejected and ridiculed at the time. 13 Mass. 359. See 7 Bost. Law Rep. 215.
It is now finally settled, that it ie not a rule of law, but of practice only, that a jury should not convict on the unsupported testi mony of an accomplice. Therefore, if a jury choose to act on such evidence only, the con viction cannot be quashed as bad in law. The better practice is for the judge to advise the jury to acquit, unless the testimony of the accomplice is corroborated, not only as to the circumstances of the offence, but also as to the participation of the accused in the trans action ; and when several parties are charged, that it is not sufficient that the accomplice should be confirmed, as to one or more of the prisoners, to justify a conviction of those pri soners with respect to whom there is no con firmation. 7 Cox, Cr. Cas. 20; Dearsl. Cr. Cas. 555 ; 20 Pick. Mass. 397 ; 10 Cush. Mass. 535. See 1 Fest. & F. Cr. Cas. 388.