Felony murder rule (California)

Since the enactment of Senate Bill 1437 on September 30, 2018,[2] felony murder can only be prosecuted in certain specific circumstances:

• The defendant, with the intent to have the victim killed, "aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, solicited, requested, or assisted" the actual killer.[3]
• The defendant was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life.[4]
• The victim was a peace officer who was killed while in the course of the peace officer’s duties, where the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the victim was a peace officer engaged in the performance of their duties.[5]

In March of 2013, the California Supreme Court held in People v. Wilkins ((2013) 56 Cal.4th 333) that a burglary is complete for purposes of the felony murder rule where death resulted from a negligent act committed while actively engaged in a burglary. Wilkins committed a burglary. On the way from the burglary, unsecured items fell from his pickup truck, causing another driver to swerve and become involved in a fatal collision. The Court set aside the conviction, which had been upheld by the Court of Appeals, reaffirming the escape rule in which a defendant is deemed to have completed a burglary when he escapes from the scene, is no longer being chased, and has unchallenged possession of the property.[6]

In the case People v. Ford, 60 Cal.2d 772 (1964), the California Supreme Court held that homicide during the commission of a felony can constitute second degree murder if the felony is "inherently dangerous to human life."[7]

In the case People v. Hansen, 9 Cal.4th 300 (1994), the California Supreme Court held that discharging a firearm at an inhabited dwelling is an inherently dangerous felony for the purposes of second degree felony murder.[8]

California courts have also found manufacturing methamphetamine,[9] maliciously burning a car,[10] and possessing a bomb in a residential area [11] to be inherently dangerous felonies.