DuckSouth.com

gps4 wrote:

Smoke68 wrote:I'll post one more time on felony murder, being that if you're involved in committing a felony and your partner in crime dies, then you will be responsible for his death even if you didn't kill him.

The reason for this rule is to deter people from committing felonies. The problem I have with it, is that it doesn't deter people from committing felonies because the average person DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT IT. Shoot, a lot of people are learning about it for the first time from reading this thread. When a lot of people find out about it, it's because something happened and they just got 25 years to life added to their already long sentence. That's not a deterrent, that's just a longer sentence tacked on to someone who already committed a crime.

Second, it removes personal responsibility from the equation, and I think most everyone here is a proponent of a man being responsible for his own actions. If thug #1 gets killed in the act of a felony, it's not thug #2's fault. It's thug #1's fault. Gutta got what he had coming because he made a bad decision (several actually) not because his buddy made a bad decision.

You know what is a deterrent to committing a felony? Kidnapping a guy and possibly getting killed for it.

It doesn't matter who gets killed during the commission of a felony or how the person is killed. The victim could have had a dang heart attack or jumped out the truck and got run over by the vehicle behind them, and thug no. 1 and thug no. 2 would both still be guilty of felony murder. The point is, they were both involved in committing an inherently dangerous crime that any reasonable person would believe created a risk of serious bodily injury or death. Both thugs made a bad decision when they decided to kidnap and rob him. In my humble opinion, they both should be equally responsible for the consequences.

I distinctly remember my mama telling me when I was a kid that if I'm with someone who shoots somebody, I'm just as guilty as the person who pulls the trigger. If I'm with someone who robs a store, I'm just as guilty as they are. In addition, ignorance is not a valid defense.