Can a defendant be found guilty of soliciting for the murder of his cousin?

While we have not found any California cases on point, out-of-state cases so hold. For example, in Commonwealth v. Wolcott (2010) 77 Mass.App.Ct. 457 [931 N.E.2d 1025], the defendant told her cousin that she wanted her husband to "'just disappear'" and asked if he knew someone who could help. (Id. at p. 458.) On appeal, she argued "that without proof of her intent that [her cousin] personally kill her husband, there can be no conviction for solicitation." (Id. at p. 466.) The appellate court disagreed. It explained: "There is no legal distinction between someone who commits a murder as an accessory as opposed to a principal; therefore, an individual who 'procures' a murder also 'commits' murder in the eyes of the law. [Citation.] Thus, if [the cousin] had acceded to the defendant's request and had found someone else to murder the defendant's husband, and that person had in turn personally killed her husband, [the cousin] would have been indictable for a felony. Whether the defendant solicited [the cousin] to personally kill her husband or to find another to do so is thus of no consequence. Either act constitutes a felony, and under either fact pattern, the defendant would be guilty of soliciting a felony." (Id. at p. 467.)