Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 147

524US1

Unit: $U76

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102

HOPKINS v. REEVES

Stevens, J., dissenting

spondent intended to kill his victim, or under Tison v. Ari-
zona, 481 U. S. 137 (1987), that he had the moral equivalent
of such an intent. The rationale for Nebraska’s general rule
that second-degree murder is not a lesser included offense of
felony murder does not, therefore, apply to this case.2 To
be faithful to the teaching of Beck v. Alabama, 447 U. S. 625
(1980), the Court should therefore hold that respondent was
entitled to the requested instruction.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

2 Moreover, a recent Nebraska Supreme Court decision suggests that
Nebraska law may be in ﬂux on the question whether second-degree mur-
der is a lesser included offense of felony murder. Only a few weeks ago,
the Nebraska Supreme Court held that a jury verdict ﬁnding a defendant
guilty of second-degree murder constituted an implied acquittal of the
crime of ﬁrst-degree murder, as deﬁned in § 28–303 of Nebraska’s criminal
code, and therefore barred a second prosecution under that section for
either felony murder or premeditated murder. Nebraska v. White, 254
In reaching that holding the Court
Neb. 566, 577 N. W. 2d 741 (1998).
explained: “The conduct prohibited by § 28–303 is ﬁrst degree murder.
Premeditated murder and felony murder are not denominated in Nebras-
ka’s statutes as separate and independent offenses, but only ways in which
criminal liability for ﬁrst degree murder may be charged and prosecuted.”
Id., at 577, 577 N. W. 2d, at 748. The difference between a charge of
premeditated murder and a charge of felony murder “is a difference in the
State’s theory of how [the defendant] committed the single offense of ﬁrst
degree murder. . . . Therefore, we hold that the crime of ﬁrst degree mur-
der, as deﬁned in § 28–303, constitutes one offense even though there may
be alternate theories by which criminal liability for ﬁrst degree murder
may be charged and prosecuted in Nebraska.”
Ibid. Given this holding,
the Nebraska Supreme Court may conclude that second-degree murder is
a lesser included offense of both premeditated and felony murder, as they
are both part of the “one offense” of ﬁrst-degree murder.