The Felony Murder Rule Haley Roemmich Peru State College The Felony Murder Rule INTRODUCTION The felony murder doctrine is the legal principle which provides that any death that occurs during the commission of a felony or attempted felony can be legally treated as a murder. This doctrine holds true regardless of whether there was intent to kill. The felony murder doctrine represents one the few instances in criminal law where the element of intent is waived (Garoupa & Klick, 2006). The intent to commit the felony is considered enough to prove malice for the conviction of murder. If a perpetrator intends only to rob a victim, but the victim or bystander dies during the commission of the robbery, the perpetrator can be charged …show more content…
(2014). The Trayvon Martin Trial - Two Comments and an Observation. The John Marshall Law Review, 47(4), 11th ser. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from https://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2086&context=lawreview. Garoupa, Nuno, & Klick, Jonathan. (2006). Differential Victimization: Efficiency and Fairness Justifications for the Felony Murder Rule. FSU College of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 244. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.951795. Lippman, Matthew. (2017). Essential Criminal Law (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Malani, Anup. (2007) Does the Felony Murder Rule Deter? Evidence from FBI Crime Data. New York Times (Working Paper). Retrieved February 21, 2018, from http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/malani.pdf. Robinson, Paul H., & Williams, Tyler S. (2017). MAPPING AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW Variations Across the 50 States: Ch. 5 Felony Murder Rule. University of Pennsylvania Law School Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Faculty Scholarship. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from
Women convicted of “other property offenses” – a category of crimes that includes arson, receiving stolen property and breaking and entering — received shorter prison sentences. • Black female defendants were, in some ways, treated differently than white female defendants. Black women were assigned higher bond amounts and were more likely to be sent to prison than white women. Women of both races were equally likely to be released prior to
a. Actus Reus The actus reus requirement of murder must be committed by a voluntary, physical, and unlawful act. The unlawful act in a murder case is a killing not done in self-defense. Issa voluntarily took a loaded gun which was normally stowed away in the glove compartment of her car and placed it in her purse before entering the apartment.
It is a crime that occurs during the “heat of passion”. This means that the person was provoked to kill another person, it was not the person’s intention to kill, but rather it was spontaneous. An example of this would be that a person came home and found their significant other in bed with someone else and then they kill that person. This is different from murder because it lacks any prior intention to kill a person or to create a serious deadly situation. Most of the time there is an intent to harm not an intent to kill.
If criminally charged, list the defendant’s charges and describe if it is a misdemeanor or felony with outlines of sentencing guidelines. First and second degree murder are considered felony. What if?
for a dull respondent than for a white prosecutor in a practically identical case. A study in California found that the people who killed whites were general 3 times more slanted to be sentenced to death than the people who killed blacks and more than 4 times more likely than the people who killed Latinos. Looks at exhibit that 96% of states where there have been surveys of race and capital punishment, there was an example of either race-of-casualty or race-of-litigant separation, or both. A respondent was a few times more prone to be sentenced to death if the homicide casualty was white. A January 2003 study discharged by the University of Maryland presumed that race and geology are central point in capital punishment choices.
The mens rea for this offense under subsection A.2 is that the defendant recklessly or negligently took the life of another. The causation for the crime is that the defendant acted because of a “sudden quarrel or heat of passion resulting from adequate provocation of the victim”. (ARS). These elements would allow the State to meet its burden of proof to convict a defendant of voluntary
Murder in New Mexico and Three Cases that Illustrate how the Statute is Implemented The three cases that I will be looking at are: State v. Contreras, State v. Nieto, and State v. Garcia. To start off I will first summarize the case of State v. Contreras. The case number is 21455. The defendant was charged under the section 30-2-1 along with tampering with evidence and unlawful taking of a car.
Victims’ Rights in Liberal and Conservative States Hawaii and Tennessee are liberal and conservative states respectively because the former has a strong stand on equity among individuals while the later strongly believes in good morals. The criminal victims’ rights were founded in the 1970s due to victim marginalization that existed for a long period (Caplan 224). Montaldo argues that all the fifty states have rules to protect victims during the trial process (“How to Write” 2). These rights ensure the victims are treated fairly during the prosecution process. The criminal victims’ rights of these two states have both similarities and differences, and the states consider themselves liberal and conservative respectively due to their different belief in the role of the government.
In McClesky v. Kemp the Supreme Court held that a study showing the death penalty in Georgia was imposed on black defendants disproportionately to white defendants failed to establish that any of the decision makers involved in the process acted with a discriminatory purpose. McClesky is a notable case in several respects. First, it highlighted the integrated nature of the criminal justice system and how each component functions to reach a certain result. Second, it emphasized the debate on which actors in the justice system have the most power and what role that power plays in reaching the result. Third, the case also underscored the importance on prosecutors keeping records of their decisions at varying stages of the criminal justice process.
Murder-Suicide in Families (2011), “States with less restrictive gun control laws have as much as eight times the rate of murder-suicides as those with the most restrictive gun control laws” (para. 7). Statistics like this one explain that strict gun laws has a greater chance of preventing murder-suicides. Knowing this can be a distinct advantage in having one way to combat this from happening. In addition Murder-Suicide in Families (2011), explains that “Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of domestic violence survivors rate the assistance they received at their shelters as "very helpful," and another
Society is dissatisfied due to the evolving violent crime rate since the 80s’, therefore, courts have been providing and urging longer sentences and harsher punishments for criminals to keep them from committing more crimes. Ultimately the majority agrees that before applying the harshest penalty of life without parole, the judge must at the very least consider all the circumstances that have led up to the juvenile committing the crime no matter how horrific in nature. “The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment ‘guarantees individuals the
Since the earliest inception of a codified concept of crime and punishment the criminal justice system has been in a state of ever changing progress building on the philosophies of laws and their subsequent punishments from as far back as ancient times of human society. In this essay what will be looked at are the current policies and principals of punishment of the state of Texas with regards to specified and targeted crimes in particular the crimes of aggravated assault, and grand theft auto, as well it will be looked at to see if there are any new practices that may improve the current system that is in place or if any changes or modifications needs to be done. In centuries past the most common forms of punishment have their roots in
Involuntary manslaughter is the unintentional killing of another, because of a negligent of unlawful act. Felony Murder Rule The felony murder rule is a highly criticized rule because it holds all parties of a crime liable for any death that occurred during the commission of the crime. Even if the death was not directly performed by one of the felons, they will all be charged. For example: During a robbery someone dies of a heart attach.
Another issue that was discussed is the inequality of death penalty in practice. There have been serious issues with racial discrimination. For reference in cases with white victims and black defendants convictions occurred twenty two percent of the time while with black victims and white defendants with percentage dropped to a measly three
Criminology Case Study: Meredith Kercher Name Academic Institution Author Note Class Professor Date TABLE OFCONTENTS1 CASE/OFFENDER 3 OFFENSE/CRIME 4 MOTIVATIONS/BACKGROUND 4 THEORY 5 VICTIMS 6 COSTS 7 ADJUDICATION/DISPOSITION (PROSECUTION/SENTENCING) 7 CONCLUSION 8 REFERENCES 10 Criminology Case Study: Meredith Kercher