Opinion ID: 1430326
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: use or impact of the felony-murder instruction given in this case

Text: After the enactment of the new criminal code in this State creating and defining substantive crimes, a book of jury instructions was circulated to many of the lawyers in this State, and in particular, to the prosecutors. It is entitled, Criminal Instructions  Montana. The book provides no information as to who published it, or who prepared the instructions and the comments in relation to the proper use of the instructions. In any event, instruction 59 purports to be the correct method of instructing the jury on the substantive crime of deliberate homicide. The instruction pertaining to felony-murder provides: A criminal homicide is deliberate homicide if: It is committed while the offender is [engaged] [an accomplice] in [the commission of] [an attempt to commit] [ flight after committing or attempting to commit ] [robbery] [sexual intercourse without consent] [arson] [burglary] [kidnapping] [felonious escape] or [ any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual. ] (Emphasis added.) The language, or any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual, is bracketed. This language is not intended to be part of the instruction. Rather, if there is a felony involved which is not one of the enumerated felonies, but which nonetheless involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual, it must be so designated. Obviously, the drafter of this instruction realized that a felony-murder instruction could not be open-ended. But the prosecutor ignored the law in this case and submitted an open-ended instruction. If the jury arrived at its verdict through application of the felony-murder rule, there is no assurance that it determined the underlying felony to be burglary. The jury could have based its decision on a conclusion that the theft was the underlying felony. The jury convicted the defendant of two counts of felony theft. There was no instruction which told the jury that theft could not be used as a basis upon which to predicate the application of the felony-murder rule. Nor is there any assurance that the jury may have found some other felony not charged as the basis to apply the felony-murder rule. The instruction invited the jury to do so. It did not confine the jury to a consideration of those felonies charged as being the sole basis upon which it could apply the felony-murder rule. Assuming that the jury did find theft as the underlying felony to apply the felony-murder rule, a conviction based on this theory cannot stand. First, felony theft is not one of the designated felonies contained in the felony-murder portion of section 45-5-102(1)(b); nor does it fall within the meaning of any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual. Second, assuming that felony-theft can trigger the application of the felony-murder rule, since the underlying felony-theft convictions cannot stand in this case, neither can a felony-theft conviction based upon a theory that felony-theft triggered application of the felony-murder rule. For purposes of distinguishing the crimes of theft and burglary in relation to the felony-murder rule, it is necessary to discuss the concept of burglary under the new criminal code. Burglary is singled out under the new code as being a crime the gravamen of which is the threat to human beings. In explaining the burglary statute, Montana Criminal Code, 1973, Annotated, at 236, the annotator speaks to this point: Perhaps the most significant of the changes introduced by the new code is the retreat from the prior view [the prior statutory view] that any building or vehicle could be the object of burglary to the view that to constitute burglary the acts must be directed against an occupied structure. The change reflects a return to the common law view that the gravamen of burglary was the threat to persons resulting from the wrongful intrusion. While the new code is not as technically restrictive it does require that the structure intruded into being either actually occupied or `suited for human occupancy or night lodging of persons or for carrying on business.' (See § 94-2-101(35) [now § 45-2-101(34), MCA]. In effect this limits burglary to those situations in which the intrusion is most alarming and the threat to human life the greatest. (Emphasis added.) Because a burglary, under certain circumstances, can be threatening to human beings, it is specifically designated in the felony-murder statute as being a felony which can trigger application of the felony-murder rule. Theft, of course, is not. The gravamen of theft is, an offense against property. See section 45-6-301, MCA, et seq. Nowhere in the annotator's note with reference to theft (Montana Criminal Code, 1973, Annotated, at 243-245) is there any indication that theft, by its nature, involves a threat of physical force or violence against an individual. Indeed, that is the reason burglary is distinguished from theft. It is true that section 45-5-102(1)(b) specifically permits reliance on an underlying felony other than those which are specified within the statute itself. The requirement is that the felony relied on be any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual. There can be no doubt however, that the prosecutor and the jury are not permitted to speculate as to choices of an underlying felony which may trigger the felony-murder rule by falling within the statutory definition. Felony theft is not a crime in which the use ... of . . physical force or violence against any individual inheres in the crime itself. The annotator's note to the theft statute, sets forth the general scope of the theft section of the criminal code: This section on theft encompasses the traditional crimes of larceny, larceny by trick, false pretenses, embezzlement, receiving stolen property as well as numerous associated offenses. The Montana Criminal Law Commission intended that this section cover every conceivable form of theft and in so doing, eliminate the common law distinctions which encumbered virtually every one of the theft related offenses. (Annotated code, supra, at 243.) It is abundantly clear that felony theft is not a crime which, under the felony-murder statute, involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual. The majority has based its opinion on an assumption that the jury found the underlying felony to be burglary. But there is no basis in the record from which we can make that determination. The jury was not instructed that burglary is a crime which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual. From the jury's standpoint therefore, there was no reason to distinguish theft from burglary in determining which underlying felony to invoke as triggering application of the felony-murder rule. As far as the jury is concerned, the instruction permitted it to find theft as the underlying felony. Furthermore, the fact that defendant was convicted on both counts of felony theft is an indication that the jury may well have used felony theft as the underlying felony by which application of the felony-murder rule was triggered. One cannot tell which underlying felony the jury invoked if it chose to apply the felony-murder rule in reaching its verdict. Obviously, if the jury did use felony theft as the underlying felony, the homicide conviction cannot stand. Just as clearly, since no one can tell whether the jury did or did not use felony theft as the underlying felony, this Court should not permit the homicide convictions to stand.