> who didn't actually do the crime?
Possession of narcotics is a crime, isn't it?
Possession of narcotics is a crime, isn't it?
In contrast, German law defines possession as "having effective control" (with some more nuance obviously). Possession is also entirely different from ownership in German law. I can not control an object I have no knowledge of. If you place an object in my house, I only gain possession of it once I discover it.
I think this is one of the cases where the civil law approach of rigorous definitions is clearly superior to the common law approach of establishing precedent.
Surely you don't think you should be the one going to prison if someone broke into your house and planted 10 kilograms of cocaine under your mattress?
> Surely you don't think you should be the one going to prison
I don't think you "should" go to prison, but I'm saying that's likely how it would go down. So it's analogous to the files on a computer situation.