Opinion ID: 2630926
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure of the Information to Charge First Degree Felony Murder (Letner, Tobin)

Text: (3) Defendants were charged with murdering Pontbriant willfully and unlawfully and with malice aforethought, in violation of section 187. Defendants were not charged specifically with first degree murder in violation of section 189, that is, murder committed in the course of committing an enumerated felony. Defendants raise on appeal a number of familiar claims related to the failure separately to charge felony murder pursuant to section 189, in addition to charging murder with malice, pursuant to section 187. We previously have rejected claims identical to defendants' claims, and discern no reason to reconsider those decisions. (See People v. Morgan (2007) 42 Cal.4th 593, 616-617 [67 Cal.Rptr.3d 753, 170 P.3d 129] [holding a defendant may be convicted of first degree murder even though the indictment or information charged only murder with malice in violation of section 187, in rejecting claims that the trial court lacked jurisdiction, that the court improperly instructed the jury regarding theories of first degree murder, and that defendant received inadequate notice of the prosecution's theory of the case]; People v. Hughes (2002) 27 Cal.4th 287, 369-370 [116 Cal.Rptr.2d 401, 39 P.3d 432] ( Hughes ) [rejecting the claim that People v. Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441 [194 Cal.Rptr. 390, 668 P.2d 697] implicitly overruled People v. Witt (1915) 170 Cal. 104 [148 P. 928], which held that murder with malice and felony murder are not separate crimes].)