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Criminal Responsibility

Criminal Responsibility. The Public Defenders Criminal Law Conference 2012 24-25 March 2012. Practical Matters. The Participants Joint Criminal Enterprise Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise (common purpose) Recent Cases In Company Sentence. The Participants.

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Criminal Responsibility

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  1. Criminal Responsibility The Public Defenders Criminal Law Conference 2012 24-25 March 2012

  2. Practical Matters • The Participants • Joint Criminal Enterprise • Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise (common purpose) • Recent Cases • In Company • Sentence

  3. The Participants 1. Principal in the 1st Degree 2. Principal in the 2nd Degree 3. Accessory before the Fact 4. Accessory after the Fact

  4. Principal in the 1st Degree • The person who actually commits the crime or is present at the scene pursuant to a joint criminal enterprise with the person who actually commits the crime. • Liability is primary (i.e. not derivative).

  5. Principal in the 2nd Degree • A principal in the second degree is a person present at the commission of the crime who encourages or assists in its commission. • Liability is derivative. Prosecution must prove the commission of the offence by the principal in the first degree. • Potentially limited cases in this area.

  6. Accessory Before the Fact • An accessory before the fact is a person, not present at the crime, who encourages or assists the commission of the crime. • 2 parts (a) knowledge and (b) action. • Liability is derivative. Prosecution must prove the commission of the offence by the principal in the first degree (by admissible evidence in trial of accessory).

  7. Accessory After the Fact • An accessory after the fact is a person who assists the principal in the first degree to avoid detection, apprehension or conviction after the offence has been committed. • 2 parts (a) knowledge and (b) action. • Liability is derivative. Prosecution must prove the commission of the offence by the principal in the first degree (by admissible evidence in trial of accessory).

  8. Joint Criminal Enterprise • Joint criminal enterprise may be relied upon by the prosecution when: • the accused reaches an understanding or arrangement amounting to an agreement between the accused and others; • that they will commit a crime; • the accused is present when the crime is committed (query presence); and • the accused possesses the necessary mental element for the crime. • Agreement need not be reached at any time before the crime is committed. • The accused will be guilty as a principal in the first degree. Liability is primary and not derivative.

  9. Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise • Extended joint criminal enterprise (or common purpose) may be relied upon: • where the offence committed is not the offence agreed upon but is an offence; • falling within the scope of the common purpose. • What is meant by “within the scope of the common purpose”? • The test is subjective: the scope of the common purpose is to be determined by what was contemplated by the parties sharing that purpose.

  10. Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise cont. • In other words: • did the accused who was present pursuant to a joint criminal enterprise • contemplate the act (including its mental element) • as a possible incident in the commission of the crime to which he or she had agreed?

  11. Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise cont. • Example: the accused and his girlfriend agree to do an unarmed robbery. They confront the victim and assault him with their fists. In the course of the attack, the girlfriend produces a knife and threatens the victim with it. • Clearly, the girlfriend is guilty of armed robbery as a principal in the first degree. As for the accused, if he did not contemplate the possibility of his girlfriend presenting the knife, then he is not guilty of armed robbery. If he did, he is guilty of armed robbery.

  12. Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise cont. • In Clayton, Hartwick and Hartwick v The Queen (2006) Gleeson CJ, Gummow, Hayne, Callinan, Heydon and Crennan JJ affirmed the principles set out in McAuliffe: • [17] A person who does not intend the death of the victim, but does intend to do really serious injury to the victim, will be guilty of murder if the victim dies. If a party to a joint criminal enterprise foresees the possibility that another might be assaulted with intention to kill or cause really serious injury to that person, and, despite that foresight, continues to participate in the venture, the criminal culpability lies in the continued participation in the joint enterprise with the necessary foresight. That the participant does not wish or intend that the victim be killed is of no greater significance than the observation that the person committing the assault need not wish or intend that result, yet be guilty of the crime of murder. • In joint enterprise murder the co-accused must have foreseen the possibility that the principal offender acted with intent to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm.

  13. In Company Button & Griffen(2002) 54 NSWLR 455 was a case of aggravated sexual assault where the relevant acts took place fifty metres from other members of the group. After considering the cases on “in company” Kirby J proposed the following five guidelines (at [120]): • First, the statutory definition (s61J(2)(c)) requires that the offender be “in the company of another person or persons”. • Secondly, the accused and such person, or persons, must share a purpose (either to rob, or as here, sexually assault). • Thirdly, the cases appear to assume that each participant is physically present. • Fourthly, participation in the common purpose without being physically present (for example, as a look-out or as an accessory before the fact) is not enough. • Fifthly, the perspective of the victim (being confronted by the combined force or strength or two or more persons) is relevant, although not determinative. If two or more persons are present, and share the same purpose, they will be “in company”, even if the victim was unaware of the other person.

  14. Recent Cases Handlen; Paddison v The Queen [2011] HCA 51 (8 December 2011) • Highlights the differences in liability as between an accessory and pursuant to a joint criminal enterprise. • Confirms the rule in Tripodi (paper at 11-12). Wood v R [2012] NSWCCA 21 (at [660]-[672]) Cooper v R [2011] NSWCCA 258 (at [60]-[73]) • It will be an error to leave to a jury a case based on joint criminal enterprise where there is no evidence to establish the existence of such an enterprise.

  15. Recent Cases cont. AL v R [2011] NSWCCA 95 • A practical example of an offender being party to a joint criminal enterprise (an assault) but not contemplating the further offence (the wounding with a knife). Likiardopoulos v The Queen [2012] HCA Trans 67 • Whether it is an abuse of process for the Crown to present a case that an accused has counselled or procured another to commit murder (a derivative form of liability) when none of the alleged principals had been convicted of murder – pleas accepted to lesser offences for the co-accused.

  16. Sentence • “Sentencing in complicity cases” by Andrew Dyer &Hugh Donnelly June 2009 & February 2010 - publications fromthe Judicial Commission of NSW; • Starting point: will be sentenced for the full range of acts committed pursuant to the enterprise. • Inevitably involves a comparison: • role; • planning: as between offenders; • participation in the physical acts; • benefit obtained; • basis of liability(e.g. JCE or extended JCE): • what was contemplated (e.g. wound or GBH?)

  17. Sentence cont. • Relationship to the victim and other offenders. • Well planned operations (role less important?) • Knowledge of a weapon. • Alternatives: not a principal but an accessory; conceal (s 316) or hinder (s 315)? • Remember maximum penalties (ss349 & 350): • aaf to murder: 25 years • aaf to robbery armed or in company or kidnapping: 14 years • aaf otherwise to a serious indictable offence: 5 years • Helpful cases: GAS(2004) 217 CLR 198 at [22]-[23]; R v Wright [2009] NSWCCA 3 [24]-[34].

  18. Criminal Responsibility • The Participants • Joint Criminal Enterprise • Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise (common purpose) • In Company • Recent Cases? • Sentence Thanks to: Jennifer Wheeler, Richard Button SC and Colin Scouler

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