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Misprision of Felony

  • 01-05-2009 10:09am
    #1
    Eddie Yu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 47 ✭


    Should the indictable criminal offence "Misprision of Felony -failure to report the commission of a crime" be reinstated. Shortly after the Kilkenny Incest Inquiy the old 'Aiders and Abettors Act' was repealed. This resulted in no ciminal prosecutions for failure to report cases of child sexual abuse especially against the religious.


Comments

  • #2
    r14
    Closed Accounts Posts: 205 ✭✭r14


    Eddie Yu wrote: »
    Should the indictable criminal offence "Misprision of Felony -failure to report the commission of a crime" be reinstated. Shortly after the Kilkenny Incest Inquiy the old 'Aiders and Abettors Act' was repealed. This resulted in no ciminal prosecutions for failure to report cases of child sexual abuse especially against the religious.

    Misprision of a felony was abolished because the distinction between felony and misdemeanour was abolished in 1997 so the offence made no sense any more. Misprision only applied when you were paid not to report a crime.

    S 8 of the Criminal Law Act, 1997 replaced misprision with a new offence of concealing a crime:
    8.—(1) Where a person has committed an arrestable offence, any other person who, knowing or believing that the offence or some other arrestable offence has been committed and that he or she has information which might be of material assistance in securing the prosecution or conviction of an offender for it, accepts or agrees to accept for not disclosing that information any consideration other than the making good of loss or injury caused by the offence, or the making of reasonable compensation for that loss or injury, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years


    This is only a crime if you are paid not to report the crime. So misprision of a felony and the new s 8 could not apply to someone who simply decided unilaterally not to report a crime that they knew about.


    Should people be prosecuted for failing to report a crime? - In my view no they should not because if you start down the route of punishing people for failing to act you are on a very slippery slope. It does lead to some ridiculous conclusions such as if you watch a rape and do nothing to stop it (but crucially don't help the rapist) then you cannot be prosecuted.


    Unfortunately these are the kind of things that slip through but I just don't like the Orwellian feeling that the State can punish you for not acting as they want you to act.


  • #3
    johnnyskeleton
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 14,550 Mod ✭✭✭✭johnnyskeleton


    r14 wrote: »
    Misprision of a felony was abolished because the distinction between felony and misdemeanour was abolished in 1997 so the offence made no sense any more. Misprision only applied when you were paid not to report a crime.

    I would argue that it fell into disuse before then. I don't think being paid not to report a crime was an essential feature though.
    This is only a crime if you are paid not to report the crime. So misprision of a felony and the new s 8 could not apply to someone who simply decided unilaterally not to report a crime that they knew about.

    But if a person acts in any way to prevent the detection of an offence, they can be tried as an accessory after the fact, although this is very rare.


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