Also known as: felony murder doctrine · felony-murder rule · felony murder rule
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A rule of criminal law that treats an unintentional killing committed during the commission or attempted commission of a felony as murder by supplying implied malice from the intent to commit the underlying felony.
Farid Farahani shoved a bystander during a heated argument outside a bar and the bystander fell, struck his head, and died. Because the shove amounted only to a misdemeanor battery rather than a felony, the killing did not trigger the felony-murder doctrine and instead supported liability for involuntary manslaughter under the unlawful-act theory.
Fiona Foster broke into a warehouse intending to steal electronics and a security guard suffered a fatal heart attack from the stress of confronting her. The intent to commit the felony of burglary supplied the implied malice that converted the killing into murder under the felony-murder doctrine.
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Fatou Fall drove recklessly while committing the misdemeanor of speeding and struck a pedestrian who later died. Because the predicate offense was only a misdemeanor not covered by the felony-murder doctrine, the death supported involuntary manslaughter rather than murder.
Fabian Flynn committed the felony of tax evasion and during the scheme a witness suffered a fatal fall while fleeing. Because tax evasion did not fall within the felony-murder rule, the resulting death supported only involuntary manslaughter under the unlawful-act theory.
Faith Fitzgerald drove the getaway car for an armed robbery during which her accomplice shot and killed a clerk. Her major participation in the felony combined with reckless indifference to human life satisfied the culpability requirement for felony-murder liability.
Finn Fletcher, a juvenile, participated in a robbery during which his accomplice killed the victim. Although the felony-murder doctrine imposed murder liability, the Eighth Amendment barred a mandatory sentence of life without parole because Fletcher neither killed nor intended to kill.
The doctrine requires only an intent to commit the underlying felony. That intent supplies the implied malice needed for murder even when the defendant did not intend to kill or act with conscious disregard for life.
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No. At common law only a narrow set of inherently dangerous felonies qualified. Many jurisdictions further limit the doctrine to listed felonies or require that the felony be independent of the homicide.
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The killing may still support involuntary manslaughter under the unlawful-act theory rather than murder under the felony-murder doctrine.
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Courts split. Some apply an agency theory that requires the killing to be committed by a participant in the felony. Others allow liability if the death was a foreseeable result of the felony.
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The Eighth Amendment prohibits a mandatory life-without-parole sentence for a juvenile convicted of felony murder who did not kill or intend to kill.
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…such a reading of Mullaney might also, for example, discourage Congress from enacting pending legislation to change the felony-murder rule by permitting the accused to prove by a preponderance of the evidence the affirmative defense that the homicide committed was neither a necessary nor a reasonably foreseeable consequence of…