Aiding and abetting (or accessory, more generally) has legal criteria that must be met fully: 1. The accused party must be aware of the perpetrator’s intent to

Aiding and abetting (or accessory, more generally) has legal criteria that must be met fully: 1. The accused party must be aware of the perpetrator’s intent to commit a crime 2. The accused then took action to help or encourage the perpetrator in carrying out their intent If both are not met, the accused person cannot be held criminally liable. I’m sure each of us have met a single one of these requirements in isolation. For example, if you watch a crime happen, you likely met #1 and if you helped out a random stranger and the help you rendered later assisted them when committing a crime, you met #2. We as a society agree that just the act of solicitation for murder is crime, one that is totally separate from a murder charge. It is also a crime to sell a weapon if you are not licensed to do so in some jurisdictions. A lot of legal theory revolves around the concept of “mens rea” (which itself has four levels: intent, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence), and “actus rea” which is the subsequent action as a result of the accused’s state of mind. Entities that act as a common carrier are shielded from this because their position in any transaction precludes any knowledge of the specific details of what they are facilitating.