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

Heading: Immediate Flight Before and After Our Present Statute

Text: Colorado's former felony-murder statute provided that [a]ll murder ... which is committed in the perpetration ... [of a predicate felony] ... shall be deemed murder of the first degree.... § 40-2-3(1), 3 C.R.S. (1963). In Bizup v. People, 150 Colo. 214, 371 P.2d 786 (1962), a pre-code case, we interpreted this statute and held that the perpetration of the predicate felony encompasses the act of flight from that felony. In addition, in McCrary, another pre-code case, we upheld the defendant's conviction for felony murder even though the flight of the defendant and his co-participant was purportedly interrupted twice before the eventual killing: first, when they stopped at a bar for up to a half hour; and second, when the co-participant molested the victim. 190 Colo. at 552-53, 549 P.2d at 1331-32. In that case, we approved the jury's finding that liability continued despite these alleged interruptions. Id. at 553, 549 P.2d at 1332. Under Bizup and McCrary, the concept of flight is broad. Together, these pre-code cases stand for the proposition that, as a matter of law, felony murder does not terminate where death occurs during continuous flight from the predicate felony, nor does it terminate where intervening events interrupt flight. In interpreting the phrase immediate flight therefrom, we have relied upon and applied Bizup, McCrary , and other pre-code cases construing the meaning of flight under our pre-code statute. See People v. Hickam, 684 P.2d 228, 231-32 (Colo.1984). We conclude that the General Assembly's 1971 addition of the words immediate flight therefrom incorporates into our present statute the concept derived from these pre-code cases that a defendant may be liable for felony murder for a death caused either during the predicate felony or during immediate flight from that felony. Our pre-code precedent concerning immediate flight is consistent with judicial decisions from New York interpreting that state's felony-murder statute, N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(3) (McKinney 1967), [10] the statute upon which our General Assembly largely modeled section 40-3-102(1)(b). [11] See People v. Irby, 47 N.Y.2d 894, 419 N.Y.S.2d 477, 393 N.E.2d 472 (1979); Donovan, 53 A.D.2d at 33, 385 N.Y.S.2d 385. Like the Colorado General Assembly, New York's legislature added the words immediate flight therefrom to its statute to clarify that felony-murder liability does not terminate upon the completion of the predicate felony. See Practice Commentary, N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25 (McKinney 1967). Further, under New York's statute, arrest does not terminate immediate flight or liability for felony murder as a matter of law. Irby, 419 N.Y.S.2d 477, 393 N.E.2d at 472-73. Interpreting the scope of immediate flight therefrom, the New York Appellate Division's decision in Donovan paralleled our McCrary holding in stating that [t]here is no exact minute on the clock or milepost along the escape route, the passage of which terminates a crime. Donovan, 53 A.D.2d at 33-34, 385 N.Y.S.2d 385 (rejecting argument that the passing of 45 minutes and more than 37 miles between felony and death preclude the jury from finding that defendant was in immediate flight).