Accomplice

Under the English common law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even if they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller and asks for the money is guilty of armed robbery. Anyone else directly involved in the commission of the crime, such as the lookout or the getaway car driver, is an accomplice, even if in the absence of an underlying offense keeping a lookout or driving a car would not be an offense.

An accomplice differs from an accessory in that an accomplice is present at the actual crime, and could be prosecuted even if the main criminal (the principal) is not charged or convicted. An accessory is generally not present at the actual crime, and may be subject to lesser penalties than an accomplice or principal.

At law, an accomplice has lesser guilt than the person he or she is assisting, is subject to lesser prosecution for the same crime, and faces the smaller criminal penalties. As such, the three accomplices to the bank robbery above can also to a degree be found guilty of armed robbery even if only one stole money.

Accomplice (film)

Accomplice is a 1946 black-and-white film. The film, from Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), was shot in four days.

Plot summary

The blonde bombshell Joyce Bonniwell is in need of a private investigator. She hires Simon Lash, a Los Angeles lawyer with a great interest for books, who has become a private investigator by interest. He was also left by the altar by Joyce some years ago. Joyce needs to find her husband, Sam Bonniwell, who has gone missing. Sam has a history of amnesia attacks, and sometimes has a hard time taking care of himself. He is a very wealthy man, which is one of the reason why Joyce married him. Sam is the vice president of the Sheridan National Bank in Los Angeles.

Simon first suspects that Sam might have embezzled money from the bank he works at, and left the country. Simon starts his investigation by questioning the bank’s president, Vincent Springer, and asks about the bank’s financial status. Simon’s legal assistant, Eddie Slocum, is ordered to investigate Sam’s gentlemen’s club, and see if there is anything to learn about him there.

Blood and Ties

Blood and Ties (Hangul: 공범; RR: Gongbeom; lit. Accomplices) is a 2013 South Korean crime-thriller film written and directed by Guk Dong-seok, and starring Son Ye-jin and Kim Kap-soo. It follows a budding journalist who suspects that her doting father may have been the culprit in a kidnap-murder case 15 years ago.

Plot

Da-eun (Son Ye-jin) has completed graduate school and is set to become a newspaper reporter. She lives with her father Son-man (Kim Kap-soo) who lovingly refers to her as "my heart." Although her father does menial work, Da-eun is proud of him.

One day, Da-eun goes to the movies with her boyfriend Jae-kyung (Lee Kyu-han) and friend Bo-ra (Jo An). They watch a movie based on a real-life unsolved crime: A boy was kidnapped and the kidnapper demanded ransom from the parents, but the child was later found dead. The only clue the police had to the killer's identity was the ransom phone call he made to the parents. At the end of the film, they play the actual recorded audio from that phone call. Da-eun freezes when she hears the voice; the man's voice sounds eerily like her father and he also uses the phrase "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over," which her father always favored.