Felony murder laws hold people responsible if they were a participant in felony which lead to someone’s death. This includes people who did not participate or anticipate in the killing. Only two states do not have felony murder laws: Hawaii and Kentucky. For adult felony murder convictions:
- 8 states and the federal system mandate life without parole (LWOP).
- 15 states mandate LWOP in some cases.
- 17 states and D.C. has an optional LWOP sentence.
- 4 states require a life sentence of 50 years or longer.
- In Pennsylvania and Michigan, one quarter of people serving LWOP ( 1,000 people in each state) had felony murder convictions
- In Pennsylvania, almost ¾ of people serving LWOP for felony murder in 2019 were 25 years old or younger at the time of their offense.
- In Pennsylvania in 2020, 80% of people imprisoned on a felony murder conviction were people of color and 70% were African American.
- Between 2010 and 2020, 8 out of 10 people convicted under felony murder laws in Cook County, Illinois, were Black.
- In Missouri in 2020, felony murder was among the top 20 offenses that Black people were imprisoned for. This was not the case for the non-Black population.
- A California study found that 72% of women serving a life sentence for felony murder did not commit the homicide, while only 55% of men did not.
- 14 states with felony murder laws include a proximate cause rule, which states that people engaged in a felony can be convicted of felony murder for a killing committed by a third party (police, victims, bystanders) if it can be characterized as a calculable result of their actions.
