Legal Question in Criminal Law in New Mexico

accomplice

If a confidential informant, calls and asks you to help him locate drugs, why isn't this individual considered an accomplice to the crime? Even if he is instructed by the police, the individual knows that ''you'' don't usually sell but must locate the drugs to sell him.The informant intended that a crime is to be committed and helps,encourages or causes the crime to be committed by supplying the funds. NMSA 14-2822 Is he an accomplice?


Asked on 7/19/09, 7:09 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Charles Aspinwall Charles S. Aspinwall, J.D., LLC

Re: accomplice

He is in fact an accomplice, and a co-conspirator, but he is granted immunity from prosecution, and probably some other legal benefit, such as a reduced sentence for a previous crime, by the prosecution. These facts may go to the credibility of the informant at trial, but otherwise there is nothing legally wrong with it. The supplier of the drugs is legally entrapped, only if the crime is one which can be demonstrated s/he would not otherwise have committed but for the CI. That is usually most difficult, because the standard is that more than one buy is accomplished through the supplier and the same CI or another one, or there is some other evidence. Fair or not, CI's and snitches provide the evidence for prosecution of most drug distribution crimes.

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Answered on 7/19/09, 1:24 pm


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