Also known as: felony murder formula · felony-murder formulas · felony murder rule · felony-murder rule
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A doctrine under which an intent to commit a felony supplies implied malice. The rule thereby elevates an unintentional killing that occurs during the commission or attempted commission of the felony to murder.
Felicia Fuentes broke into a residence to steal electronics while the homeowner slept upstairs. The homeowner suffered a fatal heart attack upon hearing the intruder. The death occurred during the ongoing burglary, so the felony intent supplied the malice required for murder liability.
Faith Fitzgerald and Francois Fortier entered a hospital storage room after hours to steal diagnostic devices. Fitzgerald injected an elderly patient with an unauthorized sedative to clear the hallway, causing respiratory arrest and death. The intent to commit the theft felony supplied implied malice for a murder charge.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Fumiko Fujimoto conducted unauthorized securities sales sessions that violated state law. When confronted by a colleague about the illegal activity, she slapped his phone and shoved him into a glass partition that shattered and caused fatal lacerations. The ongoing felony supplied the basis for treating the death as murder rather than manslaughter.
Francesca Fiore committed a securities felony by running off-the-books sales sessions. During a confrontation about the activity she shoved a colleague, who fell and died from lacerations. Because the felony did not trigger the felony-murder rule, the death supported only involuntary manslaughter under the unlawful-act theory.
Fatou Fall and an accomplice robbed a business owner who suffered from heart disease. The owner died minutes after the holdup from stress-induced cardiac arrest. The robbery felony supplied implied malice, supporting first-degree murder convictions for both participants.
A getaway driver waited outside while two others committed an armed robbery inside a home. One victim died during the robbery. The driver received the death penalty because participation in the felony supplied the malice for murder even without a direct killing act.
The felony-murder formula treats an intent to commit a qualifying felony as supplying implied malice, converting an unintentional killing during the felony into murder. In contrast, an unintentional killing during a misdemeanor or a felony outside the rule supports only involuntary manslaughter under the unlawful-act theory.
Supporting sources
The death must result from the defendant's conduct in committing or attempting the felony rather than mere coincidence of time and place. A heart attack upstairs during a downstairs burglary, for example, may lack the required causal link even if temporally close.
Supporting sources
No. Only a narrow set of inherently dangerous felonies traditionally qualified as predicates. Modern codes have expanded the list, but some felonies still fall outside the rule and produce only manslaughter liability when death results.
Supporting sources
Yes. Participation in the underlying felony with the requisite mental state supplies implied malice to all accomplices, so a getaway driver or lookout may face murder liability when a death occurs during the crime.
Supporting sources
…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…