Opinion ID: 498379
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Conviction on the Underlying Felony

Text: 16 To the extent Greene suggests that actual conviction on the underlying felony is a necessary predicate to conviction for felony murder under District of Columbia law, we disagree. While the Government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt all the positive elements of the underlying felony, 7 there is no requirement that it indict and convict the defendant on that underlying felony in order to secure a conviction for felony murder. This is the established law in the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions. Counsel has not directed this court to any case that reaches a different result, 8 nor have we discovered any. 17 We note first that the plain language of the D.C. felony murder statute does not in any way suggest that a conviction on the underlying felony is necessary. D.C.CODE ANN. Sec. 22-2401 reads in relevant part: Whoever ... kills another purposely ... in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate any offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary ... is guilty of murder in the first degree. Under this statute, as at common law, the intent to commit the underlying felony serves to impute to the defendant the intent otherwise required for murder, i.e., malice--or, in the case of first-degree murder, deliberate and premeditated malice. Id.; see Greene, 489 F.2d at 1168 (statement of Chief Judge Bazelon as to why he would grant rehearing en banc); Commonwealth v. Redline, 391 Pa. 486, 137 A.2d 472, 475 (1958); Morris, The Felon's Responsibility for the Lethal Acts of Others, 105 U.PA.L.REV. 50, 59-60 (1956). This purpose is served as long as the prosecution has proved all the elements of the underlying felony. Requiring that the defendant be formally indicted and convicted of that felony is in no way necessary to the accomplishment of that purpose. 18 While frequently defendants are indicted and tried for both felony murder and the underlying felony, this is not universally the case. For example, in Harris v. Oklahoma, 433 U.S. 682, 97 S.Ct. 2912, 53 L.Ed.2d 1054 (1977) (per curiam), cited by Greene, the defendant was initially tried and convicted only on the felony murder charge; not until a subsequent proceeding did the state attempt to prosecute him for the underlying felony of robbery with firearms. See Harris v. State, 555 P.2d 76 (Okla.Crim.App.1976). This fact alone makes clear that the Supreme Court's statement that in such cases conviction of a greater crime, murder, cannot be had without conviction of the lesser crime, 433 U.S. at 682, 97 S.Ct. at 2912, was simply an infelicitous choice of language. The Court was more precise in Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980), where, in construing the District of Columbia statute at issue here, it stated that [a] conviction for killing in the course of a rape cannot be had without proving all the elements of the offense of rape. Id. at 693-94, 100 S.Ct. at 1438-39 (emphasis added) (citing Greene, 489 F.2d at 1158); see also Harling v. United States, 460 A.2d 571, 573 n. 4 (D.C.1983) (to prevail on a felony murder charge the government had to prove all the elements of [the underlying] robbery or attempted robbery). 19 The cases cited by Greene and in the memorandum issued by the motions panel do not reach a different result. Those cases involved situations where the defendant was adjudged innocent of the underlying felony, Mahaun v. State, 377 So.2d 1158, 1161 (Fla.1979); Wright v. State, 307 Md. 552, 515 A.2d 1157, 1162 (1986); State v. Weinberger, 206 Mont. 110, 671 P.2d 567, 568 (1983); where no underlying felony was alleged, State v. Morris, 397 So.2d 1237, 1251 (La.1981) (on rehearing); or where the appeals court found insufficient evidence to sustain a conviction on the underlying felony, Head v. United States, 451 A.2d 615, 624-25 (D.C.1982); State v. McCowan, 223 Kan. 329, 573 P.2d 1029, 1031-32 (1978). We have found no case where a felony murder conviction was overturned despite the fact that all the essential elements of the underlying felony had been proved, merely because a formal conviction had not been obtained.