(a) No person, acting with the kind of culpability required for the commission of an offense, shall do any of the following:
(1) Solicit or procure another to commit the offense;
(2) Aid or abet another in committing the offense;
(3) Conspire with another to commit the offense in violation of Ohio R.C. 2923.01;
(4) Cause an innocent or irresponsible person to commit the offense.
(b) It is no defense to a charge under this section that no person with whom the accused was in complicity has been convicted as a principal offender.
(c) No person shall be convicted of complicity under this section unless an offense is actually committed, but a person may be convicted of complicity in an attempt to commit an offense in violation of Ohio R.C. 2923.02 or a substantially equivalent municipal ordinance.
(d) If an alleged accomplice of the defendant testifies against the defendant in a case in which the defendant is charged with complicity in the commission of or an attempt to commit an offense, an attempt to commit an offense, or an offense, the court, when it charges the jury, shall state substantially the following:
“The testimony of an accomplice does not become inadmissible because of his or her complicity, moral turpitude or self-interest, but the admitted or claimed complicity of a witness may affect his or her credibility and make his or her testimony subject to grave suspicion and require that it be weighed with great caution.
It is for you, as jurors, in the light of all the facts presented to you from the witness stand, to evaluate such testimony and to determine its quality and worth or its lack of quality and worth.”
(Ord. 2-89. Passed 2-6-89.)
(e) It is an affirmative defense to a charge under this section that, prior to the commission of or attempt to commit the offense, the actor terminated his or her complicity, under circumstances manifesting a complete and voluntary renunciation of his or her criminal purpose.
(f) Whoever violates this section is guilty of complicity in the commission of an offense, and shall be prosecuted and punished as if he or she were a principal offender. A charge of complicity may be stated in terms of this section, or in terms of the principal offense.
(ORC 2923.03; Ord. 278-73. Passed 12-17-73.)