State v. Small

EXUM, Justice.

The state’s evidence tends to show that defendant hired another to murder defendant’s estranged wife and that she was murdered by the one so hired. Defendant has been convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. The most important question, therefore, raised by defendant’s appeal is whether one who is an accessory before the fact to a felony within the meaning of G.S. 14-5 1 may be convicted and punished as a principal perpetrator, once the crime is committed, on the theory that he participated in a conspiracy to commit the offense charged. We hold that he may not.

Defendant’s…