What is "accessary before the fact"

Accessary \Ac*ces"sa*ry\ (277), n.; pl. Accessaries. [Cf. Accessory and LL. accessarius.] (Law) One who, not being present, contributes as an assistant or instigator to the commission of an offense.

Accessary before the fact (Law), one who commands or counsels an offense, not being present at its commission.

Accessary after the fact, one who, after an offense, assists or shelters the offender, not being present at the commission of the offense.

Note: This word, as used in law, is spelt accessory by Blackstone and many others; but in this sense is spelt accessary by Bouvier, Burrill, Burns, Whishaw, Dane, and the Penny Cyclopedia; while in other senses it is spelt accessory. In recent text-books on criminal law the distinction is not preserved, the spelling being either accessary or accessory.

Fact \Fact\ (f[a^]kt), n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf. Feat, Affair, Benefit, Defect, Fashion, and -fy.]

1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]

   A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies.
   --B. Jonson.

2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.

   What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture.
   --Evelyn.

   He who most excels in fact of arms.
   --Milton.

3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.

4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds with false facts.

   I do not grant the fact.
   --De Foe.

   This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true.
   --Roger Long.

   Note: The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the law.
   --Burrill
   --Bouvier.

   Accessary before the fact, or Accessary after the fact. See under Accessary.

   Matter of fact, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.

   Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.

n. (alternative spelling of accessory before the fact English)