By Emmanuel O. Fashakin MD Esq.
LaKeith Smith was just 15 when he and his friends burglarized several homes in Millbrook, Alabama. During the crimes, police responded and fatally shot Smith’s friend, 16-year-old A’Donte Washington, who was participating in the burglaries. He was shot in the back and back of his neck as he was fleeing from the police. A grand jury exonerated the police and justified the shooting.
Under Alabama’s accomplice liability law, Smith was charged with Washington’s murder. In 2018, at the age of 19, he was sentenced to a total of 65 years in prison by Elmore County Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds. He was convicted of felony murder, two counts of theft, and one count of burglary. An appeals court later ruled Smith’s two theft sentences should be run concurrently, changing the sentence to a total of 55 years.
That particular Alabama felony murder statute allows a person to be charged with murder if they are participating in a felony crime that results in death, whether or not that person actually pulled the trigger.
The felony murder rule is a rule that allows a defendant to be charged with first-degree murder for a killing that occurs during a dangerous felony, even if the defendant is not the killer. The felony murder rule applies only to those crimes that are considered “inherently dangerous,” as the rationale underlying the felony murder rule is that certain crimes are so dangerous that society wants to deter individuals from engaging in them altogether. Thus, when a person participates in an inherently dangerous crime, he or she may be held responsible for the fatal consequences of that crime, even if someone else caused the actual death.
The felony murder rule is an exception to the normal rules of homicide. Normally, a defendant can be convicted of murder only if a prosecutor shows that the defendant acted with the intent to kill or with reckless indifference to human life. Under the felony murder rule, however, a defendant can be convicted of murder even if the defendant did not act with intent or reckless indifference; the prosecution must show only that the defendant participated in a felony where fatalities occurred.
Some jurisdictions apply the REDLINE LIMITATION to the Felony Murder Rule. The Redline Rule, from the celebrated case of Redline v. Commonwealth, provides that although X appears to be guilty of felony murder based on the above analysis, FELONS ARE NOT LIABLE for the DEATHS OF ANY CO-FELONS that occur during the commission of the crime, so long as the death is caused BY THE VICTIM or a POLICE.
Therefore, if the State of Alabama had followed the Redline Rule of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Felony Murder Rule would not have applied to Mr. Smith. He would have been liable only for the burglaries he participated in, because, the homicide happened to a “bad guy accomplice”, at the hands of law enforcement.
People have compared the case of Mr. Lakeith Smith to that of Mr. Wesley Phelps who ironically was sentenced in the same court, by the same judge, ironically on the very same day Mr. Lakeith Smith was sentenced to a total of 65 years for the killing of his co-burglar friend by the police.
The facts of Mr. Phelps’ case were as follows:
28-year-old Phelps with prior convictions for sexual assault of a minor was high on drugs, stole a car, led the police on a high-speed chase, crashed the car, the car caught fire and the girlfriend died. The judge sentenced him to only three years in prison.
At first glance, it would appear that racism played a big part in the wide disparity in the sentencing of the two offenders by the same judge. But maybe not. The application of the Felony Murder Rule made a big difference in the two outcomes. The prosecutor has broad discretion on whether to bring a charge under the Felony Murder Rule or not. In Mr. Smith’s case, it was a slam dunk. Most jurisdictions will agree that burglary is so inherently dangerous that the Felony Murder Rule is automatically triggered if death results therefrom. The only thing that could have saved Mr. Smith was if Alabama followed the Redline Rule. They did not.
On the other hand, stealing a car while high on drugs, and leading police on a high-speed chase may be deemed not to qualify as being inherently dangerous. As a matter of fact, the drug intoxication of the defendant may provide the defense that negated the intent needed to commit a dangerously inherent crime — he was probably too intoxicated to form such intent.
People have complained that the Felony Murder Rule has disproportionately snared black defendants. Maybe so. On a happier note, on March 21, 2023, the appeal court slashed the sentence of Mr. Lakeith Smith from 55 years to 30 years.
Emmanuel O. Fashakin MD is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and an Attorney at Law
References:
1. https://www.al.com/newmontgomery/2023/03/lakeith-smith-resentenced-to-30-years-for-friends-death-by-alabama-police.html?xxxx
2. https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/felony-murder/
3. 391 Pa. 486 (1958)
Commonwealth v. Redline
