Felony-Murder vs. Murder 1: Which and why?
Here's a hypothetical. Choose which one is correct, and please explain why the other is wrong.
Lisa decides to rob Lionel of his watch at gun point. She approaches him on the street at night. Threatening him with the gun, she tells him to move into an alley. Just as Lionel moves into the alley, the area is hit with a totally unexpected earthquake and Lionel is killed when a wall falls on him.
A. Lisa is probably guilty of felony-murder.
B. If Lisa intended to kill Lionel, she probably is guilty of murder in the first degree.
C. All of the above
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It depends on the laws where it happened. Many places will consider it 1st degree murder if you use a gun in another crime and someone is killed while you are committing that crime, even if you didn't plan to kill anyone.
And, 1st degree murder is a felony.
This is a tough one. But I would say D. None of the above.
The reason I say that is because here there was a superseding intervening cause that resulted in the death of the victim. If there's a responsive intervening cause (like death as a result of a struggle or police cross fire death) during an inherently dangerous felony, then that wouldn't relieve the defendant from liability, and they would be charged with Felony Murder.
But here, there was an earthquake, aka an "act of God," and so the defendant's actions were not the cause of the victim's death and it was completely unforseeable. It's foreseeable when you rob someone that the police might come and try and help, or that there could be a struggle, or that someone might intervene and as a result someone dies, but an earthquake would have happened whether or not the defendant tried to rob the victim.
That all being said, if she intended to kill the person, and she made a substantial step, (threatening with a gun and taking them to the alley) then there would be an attempted murder charge and/or robbery charge. Although the person actually died, she wasn't the direct or proximate cause so I don't know if an actual murder 1 charge would stick.
That's just my opinion based on what I know, but your teacher might argue differently. Good luck. This is a tough one.