Can an aider and abettor be found guilty of first degree premeditated murder?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Ballard, B282339 (Cal. App. 2019):

(People v. Chiu, supra, 59 Cal.4th at p. 158.) Second, an aider and abettor is guilty of most nontarget offenses that occur as a natural and probable consequence of the crime aided and abetted. (Ibid.)

But not first degree murder. Under the natural and probable consequences doctrine, an aider and abettor is liable for reasonably foreseeable consequence of a principal's criminal act. " 'By its very nature, aider and abettor culpability under the natural and probable consequences doctrine is not premised upon the intention of the aider and abettor to commit the nontarget offense because the nontarget offense was not intended at all. . . . [C]ulpability is imposed simply because a reasonable person could have foreseen the commission of the nontarget crime.' " (People v. Chiu, supra, 59 Cal.4th at p. 164.) It therefore follows that an aider and abettor whose only premeditative mental state was that he should have foreseen the nontarget crime cannot be found guilty of first degree premeditated murder, which requires willfulness, premeditation, and deliberation. (Id. at pp. 158-159.)

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