Guilty

I went to my first guilty verdict Friday. He was found not guilty on first-degree premeditated murder, but was found guilty of second-degree felony murder. He will probably face 20 years. (Sentencing is in three weeks.)

A lot of people, including me, have mixed feelings about the felony murder rule. The basic rule is this: if you are committing a felony, and someone gets killed (even totally inadvertently) in the process, you are guilty of at least second-degree murder.

Example: I am robbing a liquor store. There is an old man in the store standing behind me. After I get the loot and am fleeing the store, I accidentally bump into him without even seeing him, he falls to the ground and dies when he hits his head.

Now ordinarily, that death would be charged, at most, with manslaughter. But because robbing the liquor store is a felony, and the death occurred during the process of committing that felony, then I could be charged with that death as though it were intentional.

Part of the purpose of the rule is to discourage people from committing felonies. I doubt it is successful in that mission however. Even if it does work, there are still serious concerns about charging someone with murder when they had no intent to murder and no knowledge that they were about to murder.