Criminal Law - Dangerous, Not Deadly: Possession of a Firearm Distinguished from Use under the Felony-Murder Rule - State v. Anderson
![handle is hein.journals/wmitch31 and id is 617 raw text is: CASE NOTE: CRIMINAL LAW-DANGEROUS, NOT
DEADLY: POSSESSION OF A FIREARM DISTINGUISHED
FROM USE UNDER THE FELONY-MURDER RULE-
STATE V. ANDERSON
Michael C. Gregersont
I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 607
II. G ENERAL H ISTORY ................................................................. 611
A. Limitations on the Application of the Felony-Murder Rule... 615
B. Recent History in M innesota .............................................. 617
III. THE ANDERSONDECISION ...................................................... 620
A. Facts and Procedural History ............................................. 620
B. The Court's A nalysis ......................................................... 621
IV. ANALYSIS OF THE ANDERSON DECISION .................................. 622
A . Propriety of Result ............................................................. 623
B. The Court Misapplied the Law ........................................... 625
C. Lack of Guidance .............................................................. 626
D . Alternative Reasoning ....................................................... 627
V . C ONCLUSIO N ......................................................................... 629
I. INTRODUCTION
The felony-murder rule challenges traditional notions of
culpability by allowing courts to find a homicide where there is no
corresponding homicidal intent.2 At early common law, the rule
t J.D. Candidate 2005, William Mitchell College of Law; B.A., English,
Boston College, 1997.
1. Felony murder is a [m]urder that occurs during the commission of a
felony (esp. a serious one). BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 1038 (7th ed. 1999).
2. See State v. Branson, 487 N.W.2d 880, 881 (Minn. 1992) (citing 2 WAYNE
R. LAFAvE & AUSTIN W. ScoTr, JR., SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAw § 7.5 (1986))
(describing the felony murder rule's function as imputing malice where there was
no specific intent to kill); 40 AM.JuR. 2D Homicide § 64 (2003) (explaining that the
effect of a felony-murder statute is to impute malice). Traditionally, culpability
has required intent. Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 250 (1952).
The contention that an injury can amount to a crime only when inflicted
by intention is no provincial or transient notion. It is as universal and](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/wmitch31&div=28&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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