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Complicity And Strict Liability: A Logical Inconsistency?, Michael Bohan

University of Colorado Law Review

"[T]o make a complete crime, cognizable by human laws, there must be both a will and an act.., an unwarrantable act without a vicious will is no crime at all. "I The term "vicious will" illustrates the relationship between blameworthiness and punishment; the foundation of all criminal law, and the justification for the doctrine of complicity liability. The Colorado Supreme Court recently granted certiorari review of People v. Childress, a case in which the Court of Appeals held that one cannot be complicit in a strict liability crime. This holding is difficult to reconcile with Colorado's application of the complicity …