Accessories

Contents

Introduction

Objectives

Main Content

• Accessory after the fact
• Perverting the cause of justice
• Compounding Felonies
• Neglect to prevent felonies Conclusion

Summary

Tutor marked Assignment References

Introduction

A crime may involve many people playing different roles, voluntarily or involuntarily, with or without the requisite mens rea for the offence in question. Among these people may be all or any of the categories of the principal offenders, and accomplices. These may not b all that may be involved. Some of the people may get involved only after the crime has been committed. This is the group you will learn in this unit

• Objectives

When you have studied this unit, you should be able to :

1. Identify an accessory before the fact at common and it location under the Nigerian law
2. Identify the accessory after the fact

Main Content.

Common law recognizes accessory before the fact; the Nigerian Criminal law does not. Such person would probably be a principal offender under section 7 of the Criminal Code.

Accessory after the fact

Statute- A person who receives or assists another who to his knowledge, is guilty of an offence, in order to enable him to escape punishment, is said to become an accessory after the fact to the offence.

An accessory after the fact knows that a crime has been committed and helps the offender to escape arrest or punishment

Common Law -

At common, an accessory after the fact is one whom knowing that a felony has been committed by another, receives, relieves, comforts, or assists a felon, or in any manner aids him to escape arrest and punishment.

To be guilty as an accessory after the fact, one must have known that a completed felony was committed and the person aided is the guilty party. The mere presence of the defendant at the scene of the crime will not preclude a conviction as an accessory after the fact where the evidence shows the deceased became involved in the crime after its commission.

Actus Reus in Accessories -

The Actus reus for this offence is receipt or assistance after the commission of a crime. Reception into one’s house  for a few moment  may probably suffice. Assistance would clearly be constituted by acts such as helping to dispose a body after a murder (R v Enweoye)  or  hiding the deceased’s bicycle (R v Ukpe)

A person who assists an accessory after the fact may himself be an accessory provided his actions constitute assistance to the primary offender.

R.V Mckenna (1960)

Some doubts have been expressed if mere omission can sustain a charge of accessory after the fact.

If B sees A running away from the scene of a crime and deliberating refrains from drawing the attention of a nearby police officer in order to assist A; is B an accessory after the fact ?. 

Liability may probably lie if B’s omission was intended to be an assistance and was actually of assistance provided also that he owes a duty to report.

• Mens rea for Accessories

The mens rea required for accessory after the fact is knowledge of the guilt of the person assisted coupled with the intention to facilitate escape from punishment. See COP V Glover (1923).

• Features of Accessories – Writers have identified four requirements of an accessory after the facts, namely:

1. Someone else must have committed a felony and it must have been completed before the accessory’s act.

2       The accessory must not be guilty as a principal.

3. The accessory must personally help the principal to avoid the consequences of the felony
4. The accessory’s assistance must be rendered with guilty knowledge

In R V Ukpe (1938) 4 WACA 141, three men came to the Appellants’ house, told him that they had killed a man and left a bicycle with him. On the following day, he went with them to where the body was lying, dismembered and buried. Held these facts constituted him an accessory after the fact.Where a person is charged with an offence and the evidence establishes that hebecomes an accessory after the fact to that offence or to some other offence of which a person charged with the first mentioned offence may be convicted as an accessory after the fact to that offence or that other offence, as the case may be, and may be punished accordingly.

A wife does not become an accessory after the fact to an offence of which her husband is guilty by receiving or assisting him in order to enable him to escape punishment, nor by receiving or assisting in her husbands’ presence and by his authority, another person, who is guilty of an offence in the commission of which her husband has taken part in order to enable that other person to escape punishment, nor does a husband become accessory after the fact to an offence of which his wife is guilty by receiving or assisting her in order to enable her to escape punishment.

In the context, the terms “wife” and “husband” mean respectively the wife and husband of a Christian marriage. A Christian marriage is manage under the Act. That is to say “marriage which is recognized by the law of the place, where it is contracted as the Voluntary Union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others”

Perverting Justice

Section 126 CC states

(1)   A person who conspires with another to obstruct prevent, pervert,   or defeat the course of justice is guilty of the felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

2. Any person who attempts, in any way not specially defined in the Code, to obstruct, prevent, or defeat, the course of justice is guilty of a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for two years.

In this context, an agreement by two or more persons to conceal a crime which has been committed is a crime of conspiracy to defeat the course  of justice.

What about the person, acting independently, who took some positive step to conceal a crime which had been committed or an informant, who gives false information to the police.

Section 126 (2) is an omnibus provision; and would seem to cover certain unforeseen circumstances, e.g

• Concealing a crime that has been committed, but not acting in concert with another or others;
• Offering money to the prosecution in order that the officer may “hide the facts in the charges” whether or not he is ultimately acquitted;
• Conspiracy to substitute someone to serve the term of imprisonment.

See the case of R V Odo (1938) 4 WACA 71. In this case the accused placed a “magic” powder in the court room in order to influence the District Officer and the court members to enter a favourable judgment Held not guilty.

Compounding felonies

This is an offence of either agreeing not to prosecute a crime that one knows has been committed or agreeing to hamper the prosecution.

‘A person who asks, receives, or obtains or acquires or attempts to receive or obtain any property or benefit of any kind for himself or any other person upon any agreement or understanding that will compound or conceal a felony, or will abstain from, discontinue, or delay a prosecution for a felony, or will withhold any evidence thereof, is guilty of compounding a felony”

If a prosecutor or a police officer should accept money from another to induce the officer to prevent the filing of an indictment against the person, this would be compounding a crime, if the officer knew the other was guilty of an offence, but would be bribery whether he had such knowledge or not.

Neglect to prevent Felony

Every person who, knowing that a person designs to commit or is committing a felony, fails to use all reasonable means to prevent the commission or completion thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for two year.

There are two aspects of neglect to prevent felony:

1. The person who knows that another designs to commit a felony and fails to use all reasonable means to prevent its commission
2. The person who knows that another is committing a felony and fails to use all reasonable means to prevent its completion

Benedict Obumselu v. COP (1958)

Accused was charged for neglect to prevent felony in that he failed to use all reasonable means to prevent one Bisi Fagbenle, from procuring her own miscarriage, knowing that she so designed.

In the opinion of the Court, “ the word ‘design’ implies a settled intention, and in many case the best evidence of a settle intention to commit felony will be the fact that a felony was actually committed, but we consider  that the evidence in this case establishes that there was a settled intention right up to the last moment when the appellant still had it in his power to take any steps to prevent the commission of the felony and that the appellant knew of it and that is sufficient to warrant his conviction.

Conclusion

Participes Criminis include principal parties, accessories and accomplices. The actus reus for accessories is the post-crime receipt or assistance.  What differentiates accessory from compounding felony is  the element of consideration present in the latter. Persons who prevent justice or neglect to prevent felony are other participes criminis. Accomplice is particips criminis and may qualify as “primary offender on the one hand and a victim of the offence on the other hand. He is an accomplice if he counsels, or aids the commission of the offence or helps to cover it up.

Summary

Section 7 of the Criminal Code defines parties to an offences, more particularly principal offenders. Sections 8 and 9 cover accomplices or persons acting in concert with common intention. Accessories after the fact and persons who compound felonies find statutory expressions in section 10 and 127 respectively. Perverting justice (section 126) and Neglect to prevent felony (section 515) are the awareness for participation in criminality. It is in the interest of justice that participants in the commission of crime are punished but the punishment must be measured according to their degree of blame worthiness and involvement

Tutor-Marked Assignment

1. Who is an accomplice in the commission of crime and how is he/she different from (a) primary offender (b) a victim of offence
2. Distinguish sections 7 (d), 10, and 127 of the Criminal

Always remember to support your assertions with the provisions of the statute or decided cases. It is not enough to cite a case. You must in addition give the facts and decision concisely and to the point. Good luck

 

	Reference
1.	Gurland,    N.M    (2003),    Criminal    Law    for	Criminal	Justice.
	Professional, Glencoe MC Graw-Hill, new York
2.	Beatty V. Gillbbanks (1882) 9 QBD 308
3.	RVBBryce (2004) Crime L.R. 936

4. Ormerod,   D:   (2005)   Smith   &   Hogan   Criminal   Law,   Oxford University Press,.
5. Gurland, M    (2003),    Criminal    Law    for    Criminal    Justice. Professional,
6. Glencoe MC Graw-Hill, new York