Backun v. United States, 112 F.2d 635 (4th Cir. 1940), is a criminal case that held that the mental element for complicity in a crime is that the accessory had knowledge that aiding or abetting would facilitate the criminal act of the principal, and did not require the accomplice have the same purpose as the principal.John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, Criminal Law - Cases and Materials, 7th ed. 2012, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, page 761. The case is contrasted with the Second Circuit case of United States v. Peoni, which held the opposite.
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