An accessory is someone who helps in the commission of a crime. Even though he does not actually participate in the crime. An accessory before the fact is a person who knows about and aids or abets the principal in the commission of the crime.

Criminal Defense Attorney, William Moore, explains that a person may be tried as an accessory after the fact (F.S. §910.13) in the county that that person became an accessory as well as in any other county in which the person who committed the crime (the principal) did so.

The principal is the person who actually commits the crime. An accessory gives general or limited help and/or encouragement. You can become an accessory [after the fact] if you do not report a crime you know has occurred. The charging authority must be able to prove that you had knowledge of the crime. It must also be able to prove that you had knowledge that your action or inaction helped the criminal to escape or evade (avoid) detection.

You may also be accused of being an accessory if you give financial or even emotional assistance.

There are some exceptions - if your spouse, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother or sister committed a crime, you cannot be charged with the crime of being an accessory to that crime. Your trial cannot occur before the trial of the principal (the person alleged to have committed the crime), unless you consent to being tried before this person.

You may be accused as an accessory, even if you are related, if the principal committed acts of child abuse, child neglect, manslaughter of a child younger than 18, or murder of a child younger than 18.

If you want to know more about this article or others contained within this website, contact WR Moore Criminal Defense.