Every accessory after the fact is guilty of (i) a Class 6 felony in the case of a homicide offense that is punishable as a Class 1 or Class 2 felony or (ii) a Class 1 misdemeanor in the case of any other felony. However, no person in the relation of spouse, parent or grandparent, child or grandchild, or sibling, by consanguinity or affinity, or servant to the offender, who, after the commission of a felony, aids or assists a principal felon or accessory before the fact to avoid or escape from prosecution or punishment, shall be deemed an accessory after the fact.
Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-19
How accessories after the fact punished; certain exceptions
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Jean Pugin v. Merrick Garland (2021)
Most recently applied in Jean Pugin v. Merrick Garland (November 2021)
Code 1950, §§ 18.1-11, 18.1-12; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 2014, c. 668; 2020, c. 900; 2021, Sp
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.