felony murder rule
A fundamental pre-requisite of finding someone guilty of having committed a crime has always been that the guilty party acted with a culpable or blameworthy mental state – mens rea. There are exceptions to the requirement of a finding of mens rea in criminal cases. The felony-murder doctrine is one of them.
Usually, to be convicted of murder, one must have acted with the intent to kill, or have exhibited extreme disregard for human life.
The felony-murder rule is an exception to this general requirement. Simply put: if a killing occurs during the course of a commission of a felony, the perpetrator and any accomplices in the felony are chargeable with murder for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. The felony murder rule accordingly imposes strict criminal liability on the defendant In most jurisdictions, the felony must be an obviously dangerous one, or one committed in an obviously dangerous manner. The rationale for the felony murder rule is as a means of deterring dangerous felonies.
Like many of our legal concepts, the felony murder rule is drawn from the English Common Law, and is nothing new – it dates back hundreds of years, and is found in English case-law of the 1700s, although the actual principle goes back further. Interestingly, the English “abolished” the rule in the late 50s when codifying elements of criminal law. Some of the principles survive in their definition of manslaughter, however.
In this country the felony murder rule was first adopted in the late 1700s (179*, I think) and has widespread acceptance. It is certainly controversial both in construction and application, however.
The felony-murder rule has increasingly been applied in complex variety of cases.
The Model Penal Code proposes a compromise between abrogation of the felony-murder doctrine, which would require purpose behind every murder, and retention of the traditional doctrine that requires no guilty intent at all with regard to the homicide. The code suggests that an unlawful homicide constitutes murder when "it is committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life." Recklessness and indifference are presumed in the instance of certain enumerated felonies.
For an in depth discussion of mens rea, the Model Code and Felony murder, try Professor Binder’s article here:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/bclrarticles/4(1)/binderpdf.pdf
If that is not enough for you, then read Professor Singer's excellent article. If you read both, you will end up as legally nerdish as I am!
The Model Penal Code and Three, Two (Possibly Only One) Ways Courts Avoid Mens Rea
http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/bclrarticles/4(1)/singerpdf.pdf
A very real issue is the exercise of discretion by the prosecutor – asking the question “should I charge this?” rather than “can I charge this?”. While the classic hypothetical in the felony murder discussion is several guys doing an armed robbery, the clerk is shot by one, and the accomplices are culpable – some of the examples cited in the media seem far more remote. In many cases, it is not hard to get the jury on your side when a good person has died, and there is a theory by which you can punish someone for it.
