In what circumstances will an aider and abettor be found guilty of second-degree murder?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Hernandez, E070630 (Cal. App. 2020):

In fact, McCoy acknowledged that in some situations, an aider and abettor may actually harbor a greater mental state than that of the direct perpetrator: An accomplice may be convicted of first-degree murder, even though the primary party is convicted of second-degree murder or of voluntary manslaughter. (McCoy, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1122; see also, People v. Nero (2010) 181 Cal.App.4th 504, 514-515.) McCoy simply recognized that where the intended crime and the charged crime are the same, the direct aider/abettor's mens rea must be at least equal to the actual perpetrator (McCoy, supra, at p. 1118, fn. 1, italics added); it did not hold it must always be less than or equal to that of the actual perpetrator, and its holding does not apply where liability is grounded on the

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