Introduction

Although complicity is not a crime, but a theory of vicarious liability, it should not be surprising that it requires both an actus reus and a mens rea. That is, it is not enough that the defendant encouraged the conduct of another nor that he hoped another would commit a crime. Rather, it must generally be shown that the accomplice encouraged (or aided) the conduct of the principal actor with the intent that the principle commit the offense. The facts of Hicks v. United States test these ideas.

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