Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 452. The title of today's lesson is "The
Difference Between Accomplice and Conspirator." Because sometimes this comes up in class.
Sometimes students will ask what is the difference between these two ? There is a little bit
of a crossover. Because in both cases, they are a person who helps someone commit a crime.
But anyway, let's take a look at the note here. So we can distinguish between the two.
An accomplice is some who helps another to do something illegal or wrong. Even if they
did not participate in the crime itself. If they did not participate , if they did participate
in the crime , he or she is usually not one of the principle criminals . One of the main
ones. They are just somebody who somehow in some way kind of helps them. As long as someone
is aware of the crime and they help someone to get away with it , whether they benefited
or not. Whether they were paid some money or not paid some money, they may be considered
an accomplice. Okay. Let's look at conspirator here. Conspirator is someone who secretly
plans . Now planning is an important part with conspiracy . You have to be one of the
main people that is doing the planning that is in on the planning of doing this illegal
thing . To do something bad or illegal with one or more people. Yeah. A conspiracy could
involve not just two but can involve five , ten, twenty people. So they tend to be. It
tends to be a little bigger. The term conspirator tends to be used in regard to politics. So
we hear it a lot more if it is some secret plan of a number of people doing something
dirty or illegal in politics. Okay. Let's continue. An accomplice can only be charged
after a crime. So if the crime actually occurred and this person was in one way or another involved
then he could still be charged. However if the crime never went off ,then the accomplice
did not get a chance to do anything wrong. . So he won't be charged in that case. A conspirator
could be charged even if the plans fails or is discovered . before it can be executed.
So if someone found out about the plan and they had enough evidence to know this person
was involved in the plans . They could be charged with an attempt at this. even if they
you know, they... even if nothing happened yet but they knew the plan and the intention
was actually there. So a conspirator could be charged if the crime does not even actually
occur. Where an accomplice could not be. So that is another point to note. All right.
and let's go over it because as we go over it we can explain it more. Here's the first
example. That museum employee was charged with being an accomplice because he was paid
to leave the back door unlocked so the thieves could enter or maybe he left the alarm off
or something like that . He is not one of the main principle people doing this . Doing
the robbing or doing the stealing . he is probably not getting a full share either.
Maybe they just paid him a certain amount of money straight out. But he is still an
accomplice . He still somehow helped with it. so that would be more like an accomplice.
All right. Let's look at number two. John lent his brother his car with the knowledge
that is the important part that he was planning to rob a liquor store. Even though he
did not participate in the robbery, he was charged with being an accomplice. All right.
So in this case, if the brother ... If John lends his brother the car and he had no idea
of what he was going to do . that he was going to rob something. Then he would not be an
accomplice. But if they can find out or they could prove that he knew what he was planning
on doing . Do that robbery and he did not try to stop or contact somebody. At that point
he could be considered an accomplice. Even if he didn't participate in the robbery itself
. Okay . Let's continue. All right . The third one here. Her role as an accomplice was to
be the person who distracted the mark . You know, the target the person. As the pickpocket
took his wallet. So even though they worked with him. She is still not the main one . I don't
know if there is an even share . Because probably the pickpocket gets most of it. He does the
hardest part. But maybe he just pays someone to be a distracter. Then she would be an accomplice
. Okay. Number four here. Sabrina is a conspirator in her husband's murder. She hired a hit man
to kill him. So this is definitely ... She is definitely involved in the planning of
it . She actually hired someone to do it. So she is definite ... Even though she didn't
murder her husband herself, she hired the person to do it so she is considered to be
a conspirator in his death. Okay. Number five here. There was several government officials
charged with being conspirators to frame that politician. So they did things to try to make
this politician look guilty of something. So they worked together. They planned it out
and they worked together. Definitely we would probably say conspirators in this case. All
right number six here. The plan was discovered and they were all charged with being conspirators
to assassinate him. So again this is a case where they discovered what they were going
to do , even though they didn't actually get a chance to do it. But they had some very
good evidence about what they were planning and what they were going to do. Then this
would be conspirators here . Okay anyway, I hope you got a better feel. I hope you can
understand when you are more likely to use accomplice or conspirator. Anyway, thank you
for your time. Bye-bye.