People v. Lucas

The issue upon which this case is to be resolved is whether a person may be convicted of a crime as an aider and abettor on the basis that he was an "accessory after the fact”. We hold that such an accessory is not an aider and abettor under the statute 1 and that defendant Lucas’s conviction of burglary must be reversed.

At trial, the prosecution’s proofs tended to show that Lucas and a companion burglarized the home of Constance Harvell in Carleton (Monroe county). Mrs. Harvell returned home while the burglary was in progress. The burglars left the house while Mrs. Harvell was standing in…