Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think 65 years is probably too much but I don’t have an issue with the conviction. This kid knowingly went on an armed burglary spree with his friends. If you are rolling with people who are armed and you’re engaging in crimes that are being committed with that gun, you do have culpability when during that crime spree that you are willingly participating in someone gets shot. What is it that the kids say these days…f*ck around and find out.

You don't have an issue with convicting someone for a murder they didn't commit? I do.

I don’t have a problem with that. I understand the felony murder statute and accomplice liability and this conviction bothers me not at all. If you are committing an armed robbery with your buddy and you are the lookout, you should be convicted of armed robbery too because you were acting in furtherance of that crime even if you didn’t actually put the gun to the victim or take his things. See how that works?

Felony murder isn't the same as accomplice liability. If I help you commit robbery, I'm guilty of robbery. If I help you commit robbery, but don't carry a gun or shoot anyone, how am I guilty of a murder that you -- or the police -- commit? People genuinely do not understand the felony murder rule, or how it's been abused and misused.

I’m a former prosecutor, I know that they are 2 different things. Under accomplice liability theories you also can be convicted for a murder when you didn’t pull the trigger, which you seem to have an issue with. I do not have a problem with holding other participants in an offense culpable for what results. If you are knowingly participating in an armed robbery/carjacking/burglary and someone gets shot and killed in the course of that event, I have no problem with someone being convicted of felony murder. You know a shooting is a possibility when you are committing an offense while armed and you chose to participate anyway, so you should have to deal with the consequences. Should their sentence be less than the person that was the gunman, I think that argument is appropriate, but they should not be absolved of all responsibility for their participation in the event.