Court Opinion

ID: 9883931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:26:08.813068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:33.258342
License: Public Domain

PARKER, Judge
(dissenting).
In adopting an absolute rule that sale of a controlled substance cannot be an appropriate felony upon which to predicate a charge of felony murder, the majority opinion ignores the facts offered to be proved in this case, and misreads the language and intent of our felony murder statute. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
While no transcript of the proceedings below has been prepared,- at oral argument before this court the state declared that it had made an offer of proof to the trial court that this particular sale of cocaine was made with knowledge that the deceased intended to take the drug by injection. Respondent did not disagree with this statement. In a memorandum to the trial court on the issue of the propriety of dismissing the charge based on sale, the state declared “the record is in fact very clear that the defendant * * * was well aware that the victim intended to take the cocaine by injection since he was present during that process * * The facts agreed upon by both parties support this statement. The State, further, briefed the point on appeal to this court.
Indeed, the trial court previously ruled “the [grand jury] testimony indicates * * * that defendant may have injected the deceased with a cocaine-water solution that proximately caused his death.” If there is sufficient evidence to bring the charge of felony murder predicated on distribution of cocaine by injection within reasonable probability, then it would seem clear that there exists strong evidence that defendant sold the cocaine knowing it would be injected. Despite these facts, the majority insists that this case presents nothing more than “the sole act of selling cocaine” as a predicate felony for felony murder.
As the majority notes, the legislature amended Minn. Stat. § 609.19(2) in 1981. “The * * * amendment revised the felony murder section to apply to all offenses committed after May 20,1981, except criminal sexual conduct.” In re Welfare of M.D.S., 345 N.W.2d 723, 729 (Minn.1984) (emphasis in original). The majority be*524lieves the statute was “amended in reaction to several incidents of violent robberies of convenience stores, in which innocent customers and store employees were * * * killed.” The old statute, of course, applied when the underlying felony was aggravated assault. Kochevar v. State, 281 N.W.2d 680 (Minn.1979) (felonious discharge of gun appropriate felony to predicate felony murder); State v. Rogers, 347 N.W.2d 551 (Minn.Ct.App.1984) (pointing a gun at another held to be felonious assault); State v. Brown, 348 N.W.2d 743 (Minn.1984) (shooting death of a clerk during an attempted convenience store robbery in 1980. Convicted of third-degree felony murder under prior statute.) It is logical to conclude that the amendment was passed simply to foreclose the argument that burglary is not a proper predicate felony or to end the distinction in felony murder cases between “property offenses” and offenses against the person. See State v. Nunn, 297 N.W.2d 752 (Minn. 1980). The majority quotes State v. Back, 341 N.W.2d 273 (Minn.1983), as stating that a “typical felony-murder * * * probably is an unintentional killing that occurs in the course of robbery or some other crime against the person.” This is an inaccurate quotation.1 The amendment should be viewed as extending the applicability of the statute beyond those felonies which were committed “upon or affecting the person whose death was caused,” since that restricting language was deleted.
The majority holds that even though the present felony murder statute unambiguously applies to all felony offenses, there still exists a requirement that, in order to be an appropriate predicate offense, a felony must “involve some special danger to human life.” Nunn, 297 N.W.2d at 753. It is not at all certain that this requirement exists under the present statute.2
The majority determines that no sale of cocaine could ever involve special danger to human life asserting, without any evidence whatsoever, that “use of cocaine, even when injected, does not generally cause death.” As authority for its position, the majority cites a case which is inapposite,3 a case the holding of which is directly contrary to Minnesota-law4 and Sheriff, Clark County v. Morris, 99 Nev. 109, 659 P.2d 852 (1983), a case where the actual holding is that felonious sale of chloral hydrate with presence of seller during the consumption by buyer of a lethal dose is a proper predicate for felony murder. The majorities’ assertions and its proffered authority are less than persuasive.
Minnesota law already considers some sales of cocaine to be felonies involving “special danger to human life.” In State v. Vernon, 283 N.W.2d 516 (Minn.1979), the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the classification of cocaine as a Schedule II controlled substance. In reaching its conclusion, the supreme court examined evidence relevant to the physiological effect of cocaine and found that cocaine “can be fatal when taken with narcotics, or injected into the blood, or ingested orally in large quantities.” Vernon at 518 (emphasis added).
*525Further, “[t]he statutory testing of cocaine in Schedule II carries, by implication, legislative findings that it has a high potential for abuse * * * ” id at 518. It is suggested that the statutory listing of cocaine in Schedule II also carries, by implication, legislative findings that the sale of cocaine presents a great “risk to public health” inasmuch as the Board of Pharmacy is required to consider that factor in classifying controlled substances under Minn. Stat. § 152.02, subd. 8 (1984).
In addition, the penalties imposed for selling cocaine are severe, including imprisonment for not more than 15 years and/or a fine of not more than $40,000 for a first violation, and for a subsequent violation, imprisonment for not less than 1 year nor more than 30 years and/or a fine of not more than $50,000. Minn. Stat. § 152.15, subd. 1 (1984).
The Supreme Court of Virginia recently held that unlawful distribution of cocaine with knowledge that the drug was to be injected constituted an appropriate predicate felony upon which to base a charge of felony murder. Heacock v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 397, 323 S.E.2d 90 (1984). See also Sheriff of Clark County v. Morris, 99 Nev. 109, 659 P.2d 852 (1983) (felonious sale of drugs and presence during consumption of lethal dose appropriate predicate felony). If the majority wishes to hold that sale of cocaine cannot ever be an appropriate predicate felony, it should address State v. Randolph, 676 S.W.2d 943 (Tenn.1984) (sale of heroin with no participation or presence during injection constituted malice for first degree murder charge) and People v. Taylor, 11 Cal. App.3d 57, 89 Cal.Rptr. 697 (1970) (furnishing heroin with no participation or presence during injection appropriate predicate felony).
In State v. Nunn, 297 N.W.2d 752, the supreme court stated that the phrase “upon or affecting the person whose death was caused” in the old statute had the purpose of “isolatpng] for special treatment those felonies that involve some special danger to human life.” Id. at 753. The court then noted:
There are two basic approaches that could be taken in determining what felonies [involve some special danger to human life]. One would be to determine from the elements of each felony in the abstract whether it inherently involved some special danger to human life.' The other approach would be to consider not just the elements of the felony in the abstract but the facts of the particular case and the circumstances under which the felony was committed to determine whether the felony-murder rule should be applied. W. LaFave & A. Scott, Handbook on Criminal Law, 547 (1972). The latter approach is preferable and is the one that we have implicitly followed in our cases.
Id. at 754.
The majority has fallen into the trap of “determin[ing] from the elements of each felony in the abstract whether it inherently involved some special danger to human life,” instead of examining the facts of the particular case and the circumstances under which the felony was committed. The facts of this particular case and the circumstances under which this sale was committed compel the conclusion that this sale, where there was knowledge that the cocaine was to be taken by injection, involved special danger to human life. This sale of cocaine, therefore, should be held to be a proper predicate felony to prosecute a charge under Minn. Stat. § 609.19(2).
Finally, the majority misreads the felony murder statute and holds that if a felony “terminates” before the death of the victim the offense cannot be a predicate felony. No Minnesota decision is cited for this proposition.5 Our felony murder statute requires the actor only to cause the death *526while committing the crime, not that the death has to occur while the actor is committing the offense.6 See M.D.S., 345 N.W.2d 723 (victim died in hospital after actor feloniously aided in discharge of gun at victim’s residence). Even the old felony murder statute demanded only that “the felony and the killing [be] parts of one continuous transaction.” Kochevar v. State, 281 N.W.2d at 686. Nothing in the 1981 amendment changed this rule.
Here, the predicate felony offered to be proved was sale of cocaine with the defendant allegedly knowing that the drug was to be taken in a potentially fatal manner, i.e. by injection. The injection took place in respondent’s presence, presumably within a few minutes of the sale. The sale and the injection, therefore, are part of one continuous transaction, and if it can be shown that Schweiger died as a result of the cocaine injection, there would exist a strong causal connection between the felonious act and the death. Our statute requires no more. See also Heacock 228 Va. at 401, 323 S.E.2d at 92.
The majority opinion precludes any “completed” felonious sale of any controlled substance under any circumstances from being a proper predicate felony upon which to base a charge of felony murder under § 609.19(2). The issue is more appropriately addressed on a case-by-case basis, examining the facts and circumstances underlying each particular sale.

. The full passage of Back reads as follows:
If there is such a thing as a typical felony-murder, it probably is an unintentional killing that occurs in the course of robbery or some other crime against the person. However, as we made clear in State v. Nunn, 297 N.W.2d 752 (Minn. 1980), the felony-murder rule can be used even when the underlying felony is a property offense if that offense, as committed, involves special danger to human life.
Back, 341 N.W.2d at 276-77. (underscored language omitted from majority quote).

. M.D.S., decided under the new statute and relied on by the court, simply notes that shooting a gun into a dwelling involves special danger to human life, and such a situation was clearly covered even under the old statute’s rationale. In re Welfare of M.D.S., 345 N.W.2d at 730. Therefore, M.D.S. did not present a case where the court was required to examine the applicability of the new statute to a felony not involving special danger to human life.

. In State v. Dixon, 109 Ariz. 441, 511 P.2d 623 (1973), the purchaser of the heroin injected the drug out of the presence of the seller.

. Commonwealth v. Bowden, 456 Pa. 278, 309 A.2d 714 (1973) conflicts with the holding of State v. Forsman, 260 N.W.2d 160 (Minn.1977) where distribution of heroin by injection was determined to be appropriate predicate felony.

. The majority cites State v. Mauldin, 215 Kan. 956, 529 P.2d 124 (1974) in support of its position. However, the statute at issue in Mauldin was for first-degree felony murder and required “killing committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate any felony” K.S.A. 1973 Supp. 21-3401 (emphasis added). Our statute reads differently.

. The statute reads:
Causes the death of a human being, without intent to effect the death of any person, while committing or attempting to commit a felony offense other than criminal sexual conduct in the first or second degree with force or violence.
Minn. Stat. § 609.19(2) (1984) (emphasis added).