Cook County Public Defenders Blog

A defendant who is seated in the car from which a shot is fired, who remains in the car as it speeds away from the scene of the crime, and who is arrested later while still in the car, is not accountable for the shooting unless it can be proven that he had the intent to commit the shooting. People v. Washington, No. 2-05-0826.  The Second District recently reversed an attempt murder conviction of a defendant under these ciricumstances.  Addressing accountability, the Washington court stated the following: “our supreme court has made clear that mere presence of a defendant at the scene of a crime, even when joined with flight from the crime and knowledge of its commission, is insufficient to establish accountability.“

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under Hot Legal Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.