Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

accessory before the fact

An accessory who assists or encourages another to commit a crime but who is not present when the offense is actually committed. 0 Most jurisdictions have abolished this category of accessory and instead treat such an offender as an accomplice. - Sometimes shortened to accessory before. See ACCOMPLICE. "An accessory before the fact is a person who procures or advises one or more of the principals to commit the telony. This definition reqmr- from him an uisti~.~tu,i. so active that a person who is merely shown to have acted as the stake-holder for a prize-fight, which ended fatally, would not be punishable as an accessory. The fact that a crime has been committed in a manner different trmn the mode which the accessory had advised will not excuse hini from liability for it. Accordingly if A hires B to poison C, but B instead kills C by shooting him, A is none the less liable as accessory before the fact to C's murder. But a man who has counselled a crime does not become liable as accessory if, instead of any form of the crime suggested, an entirely different offence is committed." J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 88 (16th ed. 1952).