Can a defendant be found guilty of failing to act in an aiding and abetting case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Vanis, E062625 (Cal. App. 2015):

Here, defendant's asserted mistake was with respect to a penal law i.e., that the growing operation did not violate the criminal laws. He was not accused of any crime involving failure to act. He also was not accused of conspiracy. He notes, however, that aiding and abetting requires the "know[ledge] of the perpetrator's unlawful purpose and . . . [the] specifically inten[t] to . . . aid, facilitate, promote, encourage, or instigate the perpetrator's commission of that crime." (CALCRIM No. 401, italics added; see also People v. Hajek and Vo (2014) 58 Cal.4th 1144, 1227.) He concludes that aiding and abetting requires the specific intent to break the law. Thus, essentially, he is attempting to extend the exception for conspiracy cases to aiding and abetting cases.

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