What Is Felony Murder? Punishment, Types And Meaning

Felony murder is a rule that creates an exception to the mens rea requirement for first- or second-degree murder charges. It allows a defendant to be charged with murder as a result of a death that occurred when the defendant committed a felony.

Legal Definition

States have their own laws defining the crime of murder. Many of those statutes specify that if a death occurs as a result of a felony, the defendant can be charged with either first- or second-degree murder. Those statutes have incorporated the felony murder rule.

This legal doctrine has also been incorporated into federal law. Here’s the relevant portion of how 18 U.S. Code § 1111 defines murder: “Every murder … committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery … is murder in the first degree.”

Meaning

The meaning of the rule is simple. If you attempt to commit or actually commit a felony and someone dies because of it, you can face murder charges even if you didn’t mean for anyone to lose their life.

Here’s how this could work. If you are robbing a bank and your getaway driver hits a pedestrian as you flee the scene, you could be charged with murder because the death occurred while you were committing a felony offense. Alternatively, if you were robbing a store with a friend and the store clerk shot and killed your friend, you could be charged with your friend’s murder.

Some states have imposed certain limits on this rule, requiring, for example, either some actual involvement in the death, some degree of intent or at least reckless disregard for human life.

In general, though, the basic rule is that intent to commit a felony is enough to result in a defendant being charged with murder if things go wrong and someone is killed.

In some states, felony murder can be charged even if the victim was not murdered during the crime. For example, in a California case, a defendant committed burglary at the home of a man with heart disease. He died of a heart attack due to shock and fear. The burglar was convicted of felony murder.

There are different types of felony murder depending on the situation. Here are three common circumstances that could result in the legal doctrine being applied to hold a defendant accountable for a killing.

Solo Actor

Solo actor situations arise where someone commits a felony on their own and a death results. For example, a defendant might commit arson and be held accountable for the death of a firefighter who responds to the scene, even if the defendant did not intend for the firefighter to die.

A kidnapper could also be held accountable if a victim dies while escaping, even if the kidnapper wasn’t planning to kill the victim.

Two or More Actors

If a defendant is committing a felony with multiple people and one of those individuals kills someone, anyone in the group could potentially be charged with murder, even if only one of the co-conspirators actually commits the murder.

For example, if a defendant was a getaway driver in an armed robbery and one of the robbers inside the store shot the store clerk, the defendant could be charged with murder for the clerk’s death even if they weren’t actually present in the store when the murder occurred.

Victim or Bystander Death

Finally, a defendant can be charged even if no participants in the felony were directly responsible for the death, but the death occurred as a direct result of the felony.

If a defendant robbed a store and the clerk attempted to shoot the defendant but killed another customer by mistake instead, the robber could still face murder charges.

Murder charges usually require a prosecutor to prove malice. Malice is what distinguishes murder from manslaughter. Malice means that you acted with the intent to cause a death or to cause serious bodily harm.

However, felony murder does not require a prosecutor to prove express intent. Instead, under common law, the theory was that implied malice justified a murder charge when someone committed a felony because the decision to engage in felonious behavior exhibited a reckless disregard for human life.

State laws on felony murder vary.

Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio have abolished their felony murder rules, while Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington impose limits on when the felony murder doctrine applies.

Among these states limiting the rule, most require that the prosecutor provide some proof of intent related to the killing or show some involvement in the murder before a defendant can be convicted.

However, among the states that require intent, the rules also differ, with some jurisdictions allowing the use of a gun in the crime to satisfy the intent requirement and others holding a defendant accountable if they simply had knowledge of a co-defendant using a weapon.

The rules can also differ depending on who the victim is. In California, for example, to convict someone of felony murder, prosecutors must demonstrate either that the defendant committed the killing, acted with intent to kill or was a major participant in the offense and acted with reckless disregard for human life. However, if the victim killed in the crime was a police officer engaged in official duties, a defendant can be convicted of felony murder simply based on their intent to commit the underlying felony.

Despite any limitations, however, in the majority of locations, the crime is still on the books and it remains a strict liability offense—if you commit a felony and someone dies, you can be charged.

If you are charged with felony murder, you have options to defend yourself. Here are some common defenses.

Lack of Evidence

Prosecutors must prove every element of felony murder charges beyond a reasonable doubt. You can introduce reasonable doubt if there is too little evidence. You may be able to argue some evidence should be suppressed, or kept out of court, if there were irregularities or constitutional law violations while the evidence was being collected.

No Felony Was Committed

This legal doctrine relies on an underlying felony. If you did not commit or attempt to commit a felony, you cannot be charged with felony murder.

The Crime Didn’t Occur During the Felony

You are only at risk of murder charges for a death that occurs as a direct result of the felony. If the murder was not connected to the underlying crime, it should not justify felony murder charges.

Punishments for felony murder are very serious. Depending on the state, the defendant may be convicted of either first-degree murder or second-degree murder. As a result, potential consequences of conviction could include:

• life imprisonment or a lengthy prison sentence, without parole in many instances
• the death penalty (in states that allow it)

The U.S. Supreme Court has limited the situations when the death penalty applies in felony murder cases.

In Edmund v. Florida, the court ruled it would be cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, to execute a getaway driver for a death during an armed robbery because of the getaway driver’s minor role in the crime and because the defendant didn’t kill, attempt to kill or intend to kill anyone.

Felony murder was first established as a concept centuries ago. Historians believe it dates back to the 12th century. Today’s modern form of the rule is still more than a century old, developed as a common law rule in 1716.

Despite being a long-held legal principle, felony murder rules have fallen out of favor in most parts of the world. England abolished the concept in 1957, and, in 1990, Canada found the rule unconstitutional because it was in breach of the principles of fundamental justice. The U.S. and Australia are the only countries that still use it, and that use is controversial.

The specifics of who can be charged vary depending on which state or federal law they are accused of breaking. In general, though, anyone who committed a felony could face murder charges if someone is killed during its commission. Many states and the federal government do limit this rule to serious felonies, though. Those include:

• arson
• murder
• kidnapping
• treason
• espionage
• sabotage
• aggravated sexual abuse
• sexual abuse
• child abuse
• burglary
• robbery

If you have been accused of these crimes or other serious felony offenses and someone died as a result, you should contact an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible to get help fighting charges that could have very serious consequences.