Opinion ID: 2520543
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Whether Arrest Terminates Liability for Felony Murder Is a Jury Question

Text: As discussed, Colorado modeled its felony-murder statute on New York's statute, which treats the issue of whether arrest terminates liability for felony murder as a jury question. Irby, 419 N.Y.S.2d 477, 393 N.E.2d at 472-73. In adopting its present felony-murder statute, New York rejected the arbitrary, strict, and technical legal rules that formerly left a judge to resolve, as a matter of law, the issue of when the commission of a felony ended. See People v. Gladman, 41 N.Y.2d 123, 390 N.Y.S.2d 912, 359 N.E.2d 420, 423-24 (1976); Practice Commentary, N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25 (McKinney 1967). Under the new statute, the scope of immediate flight is a factual question for a jury to decide because immediate flight differs according to the unique facts and circumstances of each case, such as the time and distance between the felony and the killing. Gladman, 390 N.Y.S.2d 912, 359 N.E.2d at 424. In addition, the statute requires a jury to decide the factual issue of whether a defendant is liable for felony murder following the defendant's arrest. Irby, 419 N.Y.S.2d 477, 393 N.E.2d at 472-73. Similarly, Colorado's pre-code cases left it to the jury to decide whether flight had ended under the facts of a given case. See, e.g., McCrary, 190 Colo. at 553, 549 P.2d at 1332. Under McCrary, the jury is left with considerable discretion in deciding when flight ends. See id. at 553, 549 P.2d at 1331-32. Our present felony-murder statute requires a jury to decide factual issues relating to the effect of arrest on felony-murder liability, such as whether, in spite of arrest, the temporal connection between the predicate felony, flight, and death is immediate, and whether a death following a defendant's arrest is still in the course of or in furtherance of immediate flight from the predicate felony. We hold that under our statute and precedent, each felony-murder case involving immediate flight must be decided according to its unique set of circumstances. As a matter of law, arrest, by itself, does not terminate a co-participant's liability for felony murder when a death occurs at the hands of another participant who remains in flight. Hence, whether Auman's arrest terminated her liability for felony murder was properly left to the jury.