Opinion ID: 2257617
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The First-degree Felony Murder Convictions

Text: The first-degree murder statute, D.C.Code § 22-2101, defines two types of felony murder, with differing mens rea requirements, depending on whether the underlying felony is specifically enumerated in the statute or not. If a lethal injury is inflicted in the perpetration (or attempted perpetration) of an enumerated felony, it is first-degree felony murder even if the perpetrator did not intend to kill the victim. The only intent required to be guilty of the offense is the intent to commit the underlying felony. Lee v. United States, 699 A.2d 373, 385 (D.C. 1997). On the other hand, if the lethal act was in furtherance of an unenumerated felony, it is not first-degree felony murder unless the perpetrator actually did intend to kill the victim (though the perpetrator need not have acted after premeditation and deliberation). See Comber, 584 A.2d at 39 & 39 n.14; Goodall v. United States, 86 U.S.App. D.C.148, 150, 180 F.2d 397, 399 (1950). See also CRIMINAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Instruction 4.23(I)(B). Kitt was convicted of three counts of felony murder, one each for the robbery, kidnapping and carjacking of which he was found guilty. While robbery and kidnapping are enumerated felonies, carjacking is not an enumerated felony. This difference is important in view of the lack of sufficient evidence of a specific intent to kill on Kitt's part. Kitt's convictions as an aider and abettor of felony murder based on the robbery and the kidnapping stand even if he had no such intent. As our opinion in Wilson-Bey explains, it is not error to give the natural and probable consequence instruction with respect to a felony murder charge based on an enumerated felony, because an intent to kill does not need to be proved for a defendant to be convicted on such a charge, either as a principal actor or as an aider and abettor. See id., at 354. Thus, Kitt could be found guilty of felony murder (robbery) and felony murder (kidnapping) based solely on his culpable participation in the enumerated felonies. See Lee, 699 A.2d at 385. [9] It is otherwise with regard to the felony murder count based on the carjacking. Although Wilson-Bey addressed accomplice liability for first-degree premeditated murder, its reasoning and holding apply to other aiding and abetting situations in which an accomplice is charged with an offense requiring proof of specific intent. In all such situations, the rule is exactly the same: where a specific mens rea is an element of a criminal offense, a defendant must have had that mens rea himself to be guilty of that offense, whether he is charged as the principal actor or as an aider and abettor. [10] Thus, to be guilty as an aider and abettor of a felony murder based on an unenumerated felony, a defendant must be shown to have specifically intended the killing. To hold otherwise would be to obliterate, for accomplices only, the material difference between the two types of felony murder. Accordingly, Kitt's conviction on the felony murder (carjacking) count must be reversed, both because the natural and probable consequence instruction was improper with respect to that count, and because the evidence that Kitt had the specific intent to kill Baker was lacking.