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Objects and Reasons.
1. This Ordinance consolidates and amends the laws relating to accessories to and abettors of indictable offences.
2. Section 1 contains the short title.
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3. Sections 2, 3, 5, 6 and 10, are re-enactments of sec- tions 2 to 5 inclusive and section 8 of Ordinance 3 of 1865, except that in each of these sections the words "Act or are inserted before the word Ordinance. This amendment is important because, for example, the case of piracy with acts endangering life is made a felony by 7 William IV and 1 Vict. c. 88.
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Moreover, near the beginning of section 3, the words, "ails, abets, counsels or procures", are substituted for the words, counsels, procures, or commands ", as being wi ler in scope, and also as being more in conformity with the language of other legislation of this Colony e.g. Ordi- nance 30 of 1923, section 38 (d), This amendment also fits in with the language used in section 10 of this Ordi-
nance.
4. As attainder has been abolished (see s. 70 of Ordi- nance 9 of 1899), section 6 of Ordinance 3 of 1865 has not been re-enacted.
5. Section 8 of this Ordinance re-enacts section 7 of Ordinance 3 of 1865.
6. Sections 4 and 7 are new and deal with the punish- ment of accessories before and accessories after the fact res- pectively to any act without the Colony which if committed within the Colony would be a felony. This amendment scems desirable, for as pointed out by the late Mr. Justice FitzJames Stephen in his History of the Criminal Law, volume II, at page 14, "a crime committed abroad is morally as bad as a crime committed in England
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and it seems clear that the legislature ought to remove all doubt about it by putting crimes committed abroad on the same footing as crimes committed in England, as regards incitement, conspiracy, and accessories in England."
7. A similar observation applies to sections 9 and 11 of this Ordinance, the former of which deals with accessories to felony committed partly within and partly outside the Colony, whilst the latter relates to conspiring with or aiding any person, whether such person is within or out- side the Colour, to commit a crime abroad. (Compare Ordinance 30 of 1923, section 38 (d) ).
8. Section 12 of this Ordinance deals with offences com- mitted within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, and sub- stantially re-enacts the provisions of 24 and 25, Vict. c. 94, s. 9.
9. Section 13 repeals Ordinance 3 of 1865.
June, 1928.
H. E. FOLLOCK,
Allorney Ceneral.
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