In 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court abolished key aspects of its “felony murder rule,” the common law doctrine that made everyone involved in a felony that resulted in death guilty of first-degree murder—guilty even if they personally inflicted no violence and never intended to hurt anyone.
The penalty for first degree felony murder is life in prison, without possibility of parole.
The Massachusetts justices ruled that felony murder will no longer serve as an independent ground for a first-degree … Read the rest