Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Tennessee law recognizes that some crimes require the cooperation of more than one person in order to be completed successfully. For example, a successful bank robbery may need a couple of guys to actually go in and rob the bank and then another guy to drive the getaway car, etc. Likewise, there are instances where several people are cooperating in some sort of criminal conduct and then one of them goes too far, injuring or killing an innocent victim. In situations such as these, Tennessee uses the theory of criminal responsibility to charge everyone involved in the commission of the crime as if they had committed the most serious criminal act that was committed during the course of the criminal conduct. For example, if four men cooperate in a bank robbery and one of them shoots and kills a security guard, then all four men will be charged with first degree felony murder with three of the men being so charged via the doctrine of criminal responsibility.

Tennessee’s criminal responsibility statute reads as follows:

A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another, if:

(1) Acting with the culpability required for the offense, the person causes or aids an innocent or irresponsible person to engage in conduct prohibited by the definition of the offense;

(2) Acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, or to benefit in the proceeds or results of the offense, the person solicits, directs, aids, or attempts to aid another person to commit the offense; or

(3) Having a duty imposed by law or voluntarily undertaken to prevent commission of the offense and acting with intent to benefit in the proceeds or results of the offense, or to promote or assist its commission, the person fails to make a reasonable effort to prevent commission of the offense.

Thus, persons who are charged with any crime through the criminal responsibility statute need to prove to the court that they did not intend to commit the offense or assist in the commission of the offense in any way. Use of an experienced criminal defense attorney can be crucial in such situations, as it allows a defendant to put forth the best possible defense and possibly separate himself from the rest of the defendants enough so that he can avoid being charged with criminal responsibility.