Court Opinion

ID: 9635543
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:53:57.538515+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:29.597055
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the Crimes Code1 does not prohibit finding a defendant guilty of felony-murder when the fatal blow was delivered by a co-felon. I do not believe, however, that the changes made in the Crimes Code impose no limits on the scope of the felony-murder doctrine.
Under the Crimes Code, a killing cannot constitute murder unless it is a criminal homicide:
“A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the first degree [now murder of the second degree] if the actor is engaged in or is an accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempt*176ing to commit robbery, rape, or deviate sexual intercourse by force or threat of force, arson, burglary, or kidnapping.”
18 Pa. C.S.A. § 2502 (1973) (emphasis added). Criminal homicide in turn is defined as a killing in which the defendant “intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently causes the death of another human being.” Id. § 2501(a). As section 302 of the Crimes Code2 makes clear, a defendant cannot be guilty of a criminal homicide unless he either intends or knows that death will result, or is reckless or criminally negligent about the possibility that death will result. Thus, conviction for murder on a felony-murder theory requires that a defendant must at least be negligent as to the possibility that death will result.
In fact, however, this requirement modifies prior law little, if at all. Properly interpreted, the requirements that the underlying felony be inherently dangerous to human life, that the killing be in furtherance of the underlying felony, and of causation, should serve to prevent criminal homicide convictions for non-negligent killings. For example, it is clear in this case that appellant has been at least criminally negligent about the possibility that the robbery would result in the loss of human life. Accordingly, I concur in the result.

. 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 101 et seq. (1973).

. Id. § 302.