New York v. Kaplan
Court of Appeals of the State of New York
556 N.E.2d 415 (1990)
Murray Kaplan (defendant) was present at his cousin Mike's office when an undercover detective posing as a drug courier came to buy cocaine; Mike told Kaplan to "take care of" the transaction, and Kaplan retrieved a manila envelope and exchanged it for $15,000 in cash, which he then counted. Kaplan was charged as an accomplice to criminal sale of a narcotic, and at trial the defense sought a jury instruction requiring proof that Kaplan had both specific intent to sell narcotics and a shared purpose with the principal; the trial court declined, instructing instead that the jury need only find Kaplan knew he was dealing with cocaine and intentionally aided the sale. Kaplan was convicted, and an intermediate appellate court affirmed.
Whether a defendant charged as an accomplice to criminal sale of a narcotic must be shown to have possessed a specific intent to sell the drug and a shared purpose with the principal, or only the knowing mental state required for the underlying offense.