Opinion ID: 72029
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Malice Aforethought Requirement.

Text: 30 The federal felony-murder statute provides in relevant part: Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder ... committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson ... is murder in the first degree. 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a). The statute reflects the English common law principle that one who caused another's death while committing or attempting to commit a felony was guilty of murder even though he did not intend to kill the deceased. United States v. El-Zoubi, 993 F.2d 442, 449 (5th Cir.1993); Wayne R. LaFave & Austin W. Scott, Jr., Substantive Criminal Law § 7.5 (1986); 40 Am.Jur.2d Homicide § 72 (1968). The theory of the common law was that anyone who committed a common law felony possessed legal malice. Commonwealth v. Bolish, 381 Pa. 500, 510, 113 A.2d 464, 470 (1955), overruled on other grounds by Commonwealth ex rel. Shadd v. Myers, 423 Pa. 82, 223 A.2d 296 (1966). Consequently, anytime commission of a felony caused a death, even though unintentional or accidental, the legal malice from the felony sufficed to transform the killing into a felony murder. Id. 31 Section 1111(a) enshrines this common law principle in federal statutory law, but restricts its application to arson and certain other enumerated felonies. United States v. Herman, 576 F.2d 1139, 1143-44 & n. 2 (5th Cir.1978). Accordingly, to be guilty of first-degree murder by virtue of the federal felony murder rule, the defendant need only have intended to commit the underlying felony; no other mens rea is required. United States v. Flores, 63 F.3d 1342, 1371 (5th Cir.1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 87, 136 L.Ed.2d 43 (1996); United States v. Chischilly, 30 F.3d 1144, 1159-60 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1132, 115 S.Ct. 946, 130 L.Ed.2d 890 (1995); Cole, supra, at 74; see also United States v. Antelope, 430 U.S. 641, 644, 97 S.Ct. 1395, 1397-98, 51 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977) (recognizing that the felony murder component of 18 U.S.C. § 1111 does not require proof of premeditation or deliberation). That the killing resulted from commission of an enumerated felony suffices to establish the requisite malice aforethought. See United States v. Thomas, 34 F.3d 44, 48-49 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1007, 115 S.Ct. 527, 130 L.Ed.2d 431 (1994). 32 We therefore hold that the malice aforethought requirement poses no impediment to sentencing Appellant Tham with reference to the first-degree murder sentencing guideline. Although the district court concluded that Tham did not intend to cause the death of his brother, the evidence presented at trial persuaded the jury that Tham intended to commit the arson that claimed his brother's life. The malice that motivated commission of the arson also supplies the malice aforethought required for a conviction under the federal felony-murder statute. 33