accomplice
    n 1: a person who joins with another in carrying out some plan
         (especially an unethical or illegal plan) [syn:
         accomplice, confederate]

Accomplice \Ac*com"plice\, n. [Ac- (perh. for the article a or
   for L. ad) + E. complice. See Complice.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. A cooperator. [R.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Success unto our valiant general,
            And happiness to his accomplices!     --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Law) An associate in the commission of a crime; a
      participator in an offense, whether a principal or an
      accessory. "And thou, the cursed accomplice of his
      treason." --Johnson.

   Note: It is followed by with or of before a person and by in
         (or sometimes of) before the crime; as, A was an
         accomplice with B in the murder of C. Dryden uses it
         with to before a thing. "Suspected for accomplice to
         the fire." --Dryden.
         [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Abettor; accessory; assistant; associate; confederate;
        coadjutor; ally; promoter. See Abettor.
        [1913 Webster]

ACCOMPLICE, crim. law. This term includes in its meaning, all persons who
have been concerned in the commission of a crime, all particepes crimitis,
whether they are considered in strict legal propriety, as principals in the
first or second degree, or merely as accessaries before or after the fact.
Foster, 341; 1 Russell, 21; 4 Bl. Com. 331; 1 Phil. Ev. 28; Merlin,
Repertoire, mot Complice. U. S. Dig. h.t.
     2. But in another sense, by the word accomplice is meant, one who not
being a principal, is yet in some way concerned in the commission of a
crime.  It has been questioned, whether one who was an accomplice to a
suicide can be punished as such.  A case occurred in Prussia where a
soldier, at the request of his comrade, had cut the latter in pieces; for
this he was tried capitally.  In the year 1817, a young woman named Leruth
received a recompense for aiding a man to kill himself.  He put the point of
a bistouri on his naked breast, and used the hand of the young woman to
plunge it with greater force into his bosom; hearing some noise he ordered
her away. The man receiving effectual aid was soon cured of the wound which
had been inflicted; and she was tried and convicted of having inflicted the
wound, and punished by ten years' imprisonment. Lepage, Science du Droit,
ch. 2 art. 3, Sec. 5. The case of Saul, the king of Israel, and his armor
bearer, (1 Sam. xxxi. 4,) and of David and the Amelekite, (2 Sam. i. 2-16,)
will doubtless occur to the reader.

ACCOMPLICE, n.  One associated with another in a crime, having guilty
knowledge and complicity, as an attorney who defends a criminal,
knowing him guilty.  This view of the attorney's position in the
matter has not hitherto commanded the assent of attorneys, no one
having offered them a fee for assenting.