Maryland Criminal Lawyer on Accessory Law

Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney who represented a man in the Howard County determined that under Maryland Criminal Law his client in Howard County murder case was guilty of being an accessory after the fact to murder. In the case which is featured in the Baltimore Sun today. A Maryland Criminal Defense Lawyer determined that the fact that his client drove the killer to an apartment the day after he claimed he had killed someone and purchased bleach for him to wash his clothes were sufficient to convict him of being an accessory after the fact to the murder he committed.

This case illustrates the proposition that one does not have to actually participate in the actual commission of a crime to be guilty of being an accessory to it. The classic example is the getaway driver in a bank robbery being guilty of first degree murder if he co-conspirators kill someone while carrying out the robbery. The driver of the getaway car in this hypothetical is guilty of first degree felony murder even if he never touched a weapon or entered the bank and even if his co-conspirators promised him nobody would be hurt.