Who May Not Be Charged As Accessories To The Crime?


Image Credit to www.flashcards.barmaterials.com via Google.

I am sure that most of us are already familiar with the term ACCESSORIES TO THE CRIME. I am hoping also that aside from hearing this term very often, we already have a grasp of what it conveys and how could we evade from committing it.

The Revised Penal Code or Act Number 3815, as amended, provides a definition of accessories to the crime.  Accordingly, accessories are those who, having knowledge of the commission of the crime, and without participated therein, either as principals or accomplices, take part subsequent to its commission in the manner provided by law.

Accessories are not principals nor accomplices to the crime.

Accessories take part subsequent to the commission of the crimes in this manners:

1. By profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit by the effects of the crime;

2. By concealing or destroying the body of the crime, or the effects or instruments thereof, in order to prevent its discovery;

3. By harboring, concealing, or assisting in the escape of the principal of the crime, provided the accessory acts with abuse of his public functions or whenever the author of the crime is guilty of treason, parricide, murder, or an attempt to take the life of the Chief Executive, or is known to be habitually guilty of some other crime.

The same code provides also who are the accessories that are exempt from criminal liability.  Thus, even if they are accessories, they cannot be charged of such.

Who are the accessories that are exempt from criminal liability?  They are exempted because of their relationship to the principal.  They are the:

1. Spouses
2. Ascendants 
3. Descendants 
4. Legitimate, Natural, and Adopted Brothers and Sisters
5. Relatives by Affinity Within the Same Degrees

But the exemption is not absolute. The exemption shall not apply if they are profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit by the effects of the crime.

What is important is that the accessories have knowledge of the commission of the crime.  Otherwise, they cannot be charged thereof.


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