Do they have felony murder?
Yes, I believe they do have felony murder.
FELONY MURDER
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut and most other states have felony murder provisions in their statutes. Under CGS § 53a-54c, a person is guilty of murder when, acting either alone or with others, he (1) commits or attempts to commit robbery, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault in the first degree, aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, sexual assault in the third degree, sexual assault in the third degree with a firearm, or escape in the first or second degree and (2) in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of flight from it, he or another participant in the underlying crime causes the death of a person other than one of the participants. The penalty for this crime depends on whether the person is convicted of a capital felony, murder, or arson murder.
If the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it is an affirmative defense that he: (1) did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid its commission; (2) was not armed with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument; (3) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon or instrument; and (4) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury. By law, defendants must prove an affirmative defense by a preponderance of the evidence.
In
State v. Cobbs, 203 Conn. 4 (1987), the Supreme Court noted that a person can be convicted of felony murder even though he did not intend to kill the victim and did not personally do so. However, the court held that it is not enough that the defendant committed the underlying felony and caused the death of the victim unless the death was a part of the felony and directly involved in it. It explained that, at trial, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that:
1. the defendant and others (if applicable) committed or attempted to commit the felony,
2. the defendant or one of the other participants caused the victim's death, and
3. the defendant or one of the other participants caused the death in the course of and in furtherance of the felony
In
State v. Young, 191 Conn. 636 (1983), the defendant had been convicted under the statute for an arson for hire that killed one person in the building. The court noted that the statute had been taken from the New York Penal code. Following a New York case, (
People v. Wood, 8 N.Y.2d 48, 1960), it held that the phrase “in furtherance of” imposes a proximate cause requirement beyond that of mere causation in fact. The New York court had ruled that felony murder does not include killings that are incidentally coincident with the underlying felony, but only those committed by one of the criminals in the attempted execution of the unlawful act. The Connecticut court upheld the conviction, finding that the jury instruction adequately conveyed this limitation of liability.
