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ACCOMPLICE

Volume 1 · 100 words · 1797 Edition

one that has a hand in a business; or is privy in the same design or crime with another. See Accessory.

By the law of Scotland, the accomplice can only be prosecuted after the conviction of the principal offender, unless the accession of the accomplice is immediate, in ipso facto, so as in effect to render them co-principal. By the general rule, the accomplice suffers the same punishment with the principal offender; yet if he be remarkably less guilty, justice will not permit equal punishment.

The council of Sens, and several other synodical statutes, expressly prohibit the revealing of accomplices.