WHAT IS FELONY MURDER?

Felony murder is the phrase used to describe a situation when a person is charged with the crime of murder when a death takes place during the commission of another felony offense.

This does not require that the person charged with the murder was actually the person who killed someone or caused a death.

An example of his would be if John and Jim agree to rob a gas station together, and during their robbery of the gas station a person is killed both or either of them could be charged with felony murder.

So if John shoots and kill the gas station attendant or another customer during the robbery, Jim could be charged with the murder of the victim even if he did not know or intend for John to kill anyone.

Another example would be if the gas station attendant in an effort to prevent the robbery fired a weapon and missed the robbers but killed another customer.  John and Jim could both be charged with felony murder.

Even if the gas station attendant shot and killed one of the robbers, the other robber could be charged with felony murder.

The murder charge is simply a result of a murder or death being the result intended or not of the commission of any other felony offense.

Contact Russo Law Offices for a criminal defense attorney in Wheaton.