104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB1825
 
Introduced 1/28/2025, by Rep. Jay Hoffman
 
SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
720 ILCS 5/5-2  from Ch. 38, par. 5-2
    Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that a person is legally accountable for the conduct of another when, acting as an aggressor as provided in the Code, he or she causes another to use force in defense of himself or another and that use of force is the proximate cause of injury to a third party.


LRB104 09228 RLC 19285 b

 
 
A BILL FOR
 
HB1825LRB104 09228 RLC 19285 b

1    AN ACT concerning criminal law.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Criminal Code of 2012 is amended by 
5changing Section 5-2 as follows:
 
6    (720 ILCS 5/5-2)  (from Ch. 38, par. 5-2)
7    Sec. 5-2. When accountability exists. A person is legally 
8accountable for the conduct of another when:
9        (a) having a mental state described by the statute 
10    defining the offense, he or she causes another to perform 
11    the conduct, and the other person in fact or by reason of 
12    legal incapacity lacks such a mental state;
13        (b) the statute defining the offense makes him or her 
14    so accountable; or
15        (c) either before or during the commission of an 
16    offense, and with the intent to promote or facilitate that 
17    commission, he or she solicits, aids, abets, agrees, or 
18    attempts to aid that other person in the planning or 
19    commission of the offense; or .
20        (d) acting as an aggressor as provided in Section 7-4, 
21    he or she causes another to use force in defense of himself 
22    or another under Section 7-1 and that use of force is the 
23    proximate cause of injury to a third party. 
 
 
HB1825- 2 -LRB104 09228 RLC 19285 b

1    When 2 or more persons engage in a common criminal design 
2or agreement, any acts in the furtherance of that common 
3design committed by one party are considered to be the acts of 
4all parties to the common design or agreement and all are 
5equally responsible for the consequences of those further 
6acts. Mere presence at the scene of a crime does not render a 
7person accountable for an offense; a person's presence at the 
8scene of a crime, however, may be considered with other 
9circumstances by the trier of fact when determining 
10accountability.
11    A person is not so accountable, however, unless the 
12statute defining the offense provides otherwise, if:
13        (1) he or she is a victim of the offense committed;
14        (2) the offense is so defined that his or her conduct 
15    was inevitably incident to its commission; or
16        (3) before the commission of the offense, he or she 
17    terminates his or her effort to promote or facilitate that 
18    commission and does one of the following: (i) wholly 
19    deprives his or her prior efforts of effectiveness in that 
20    commission, (ii) gives timely warning to the proper law 
21    enforcement authorities, or (iii) otherwise makes proper 
22    effort to prevent the commission of the offense.
23(Source: P.A. 96-710, eff. 1-1-10.)