Opinion ID: 2188660
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Does failure to charge felony murder constitute grounds for reversal of the murder conviction?

Text: In Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed. 2d 392 (1980), the Supreme Court recognized that charging a jury on lesser-included offenses can be beneficial to the defendant because it affords the jury a less drastic alternative than the choice between conviction of the offense charged and acquittal. Id. at 633, 100 S.Ct. at 2387, 65 L.Ed. 2d at 400. Defendant argues that because the court charged the jury only on the lesser-homicide offenses of aggravated murder and reckless manslaughter, charges defendant now asserts were virtually irrelevant to the present case since there was absolutely no evidence that Lawrence Talley had been killed recklessly, the jury was faced with acquitting defendant of all charges or convicting him of capital murder. As the State notes, that is a somewhat exaggerated view because defendant was also charged on serious-bodily-injury murder, a non-capital offense, as provided by State v. Gerald, supra, 113 N.J. 40, 549 A. 2d 792. In addition, defense counsel had objected to the State's reference, in its opening statement, to drugs and money missing from Talley's body on the basis that the indictment had not charged theft. To be reversible error, the failure to charge must have been capable of bringing about an unjust result. R. 2:10-2. Defendant asserts that a felony-murder charge would have given the jury the option of convicting defendant of a non-capital murder. Because we have vacated the death sentence on that basis, there is, in the present posture of the case, no other prejudicial effect prior to a capital retrial. See State v. Dixon, supra, 125 N.J. at 256, 593 A. 2d 266 (Because the sentence for felony murder is the same as the sentence for knowing or purposeful murder where the death penalty is not imposed, there is no prejudice to defendant in the circumstances of this case). If the State seeks a sentence of death, the conviction of murder must be vacated and the murder count retried. See State v. Long, 119 N.J. 439, 504-05, 575 A. 2d 435 (1990) (discussion concerning effect of partial criminal reversal and whether reversal of capital-murder count requires reversal of any other related count prior to retrial).