As a defendant of a crime, you may be shocked to learn you are being charged as an accomplice to a crime you did not commit. The law holds people responsible even in situations where they were not the one that actually did the crime. If you're being charged as a potential accomplice, know the following 3 things. 

Intention Matters

Being physically present during a crime is not the only thing that matters when deciding guilt. Intent also plays a big part of it, since you could somehow participate in committing the crime or instigated the crime. This means that it's possible for someone to by at the scene of a crime and not legally be considered an accomplice to the crime, and for someone to not be at the crime scene and be considered an accomplice.

For instance, you may know where money is stored at the place you are employed, and tell someone that information so that they can steal it. That is a situation where you could be considered an accomplice. If you are with somebody when they suddenly decide to rob a store, you would be a witness and not considered an accomplice.

Encouraging Illegal Action Matters

Sharing information that eventually leads to a crime may not cause you to be considered as an accomplice. In the example of stealing money from an employer, simply telling somebody something that you know is not enough to find you guilty of the crime. What matters is if you were encouraging somebody to commit theft in that situation, which makes you an accomplice.

Confiding in somebody with information is not enough since there must be some form of encouragement to commit a crime by sharing information.

Unintended Crimes Are Considered In Guilt

You may have encouraged a simple robbery, but there could have been other crimes that occurred as a result of your encouragement. For example, the intent of a robbery may be to steal money, but if a weapon is used, it could lead to someone else being killed or injured. In that situation, you could be considered an accomplice to those additional crimes.

Proving you were not an accomplice can be a difficult task to do. That is why it is so important to work with a lawyer that can argue of a good judgement on your behalf in court. Having great legal representation could be what helps prove your innocence when proving you committed a crime is intent rather than being directly responsible for it.

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