Opinion ID: 2104647
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the felony murder instruction and accomplice liability

Text: After first instructing the jury on the charge of aiding and abetting the armed robbery, the trial court gave the standard Redbook instruction on felony murder: Any killing, even committed with [sic] without the specific intent to kill, and even if accidental is murder in the first degree if committed in the perpetration or the attempt to perpetrate the offense of robbery. Now, if two or more persons acting together [are] perpetrating, or attempting to perpetrate the offense of robbery, and one of them in the course of the felony and in furtherance of the common purpose to commit the felony, kills a human being, both the person who commits the killing, and person or persons who aided and abetted the felony are guilty of murder in the first degree. See D.C. CRIMINAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS 4.22 (3d ed. 1978). Appellant argues for the first time on appeal that this instruction misstates the scope of accomplice liability on a felony murder charge because it eliminates the need for a jury finding that the accomplice aided and abetted a killing as well as having aided and abetted the underlying felony. Because appellant failed to object at trial, we review for plain error. E.g., Watts v. United States, 362 A.2d 706, 708 (D.C.1976) (en banc). Appellant asks us to adopt the reasoning of a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in United States v. Jones, 678 F.2d 102 (9th Cir.1982). In that case, the appellant was one of four participants in a bank robbery in which another of the participants shot and killed a bank security guard. The court held that it was not enough for the jury to find that the appellant had aided and abetted a bank robbery in which a killing occurred; the trial court should have instructed the jury to determine whether the appellant had aided and abetted the killing itself. Id., 678 F.2d at 106. Without such an instruction here, appellant argues, the trial court failed to instruct on every essential element of the crime, which we have held to be per se reversible `plain error,' failure to object notwithstanding. Kind v. United States, 529 A.2d 294, 295 (D.C.1987). In the context of imposing accomplice liability for armed robbery, we recently held in Ingram v. United States, 592 A.2d 992, 1003-04 (D.C.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 667, 116 L.Ed.2d 757 (1991), that the accomplice is liable for the while armed element when he or she could reasonably foresee that a weapon would be required to perpetrate the robbery. In Ingram, we were interpreting the natural and probable consequences language of our accomplice liability cases, see e.g., Morriss v. United States, 554 A.2d 784, 789 (D.C.1989) (`accomplice liability extends to acts of the principal ... that were a natural and probable consequence of the criminal scheme the accomplice encouraged or aided') (quoting 2 WAYNE LAFAVE & AUSTIN SCOTT, JR., SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW § 6.8(b) at 157 (1986)). Were we to apply this analysis in the felony murder context, as appellant urges, an accomplice to the underlying felony would be liable for the murder only if it was reasonably foreseeable that a killing could result in the perpetration of the underlying felony. [12] We are bound, however, by this court's opinion in Waller v. United States, 389 A.2d 801 (D.C.1978), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 901, 100 S.Ct. 1824, 64 L.Ed.2d 253 (1980), which clearly enunciates the requirements in this jurisdiction for a felony murder conviction: First, the defendant or an accomplice must have inflicted injury on the decedent from which he [or she] died. Second, the injury must have been inflicted in perpetration of a specified felony. No distinction [is] made between principals and aiders and abettors for purposes of felony murder liability. Only intent to commit the underlying felony need be proved. Id. at 807 (emphasis added). All accomplices are culpable for the resulting death. West v. United States, 499 A.2d 860, 866 (D.C.1985) (affirming conviction for felony murder of both principal and aiders and abettors in attempted armed robbery). This is so because the intent requirement for murder, in the case against an aider and abettor, is satisfied solely by the aider and abettor's participation in the felony that resulted in the killing. See United States v. Heinlein, 160 U.S.App.D.C. 157, 167, 490 F.2d 725, 735 (1973). The instructions given here invoked the required knowledge, not only of every element of armed robbery, but also of the essential elements of felony murder: that (1) during the commission of a felony and in furtherance of a common purpose to commit the offense (2) either the defendant or an accomplice kills a human being. See Waller, 389 A.2d at 807 (D.C.1978); cf. Head v. United States, 451 A.2d 615, 625 (D.C.1982). Accordingly, we conclude that the court did not err, let alone plainly err, in its instructions on felony murder. Affirmed but remanded for vacation of armed robbery conviction.