New Report Calls for Repeal of Felony Murder Laws Nationwide, Finding They Fuel Extreme Sentencing and Racial Disparities

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — Today The Sentencing Project released Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing, which notes that felony murder laws have become a major but often overlooked contributor to mass incarceration and racial inequity in the American legal system.

Under felony murder laws, individuals can be convicted of murder if they participated in certain felonies that resulted in a death, even when they did not kill, did not intend to kill, or played a far more limited role than the person who caused the death. The report argues that these laws disregard intent, violating basic principles of proportionality while failing to improve public safety.

The report also highlights the experiences of people serving decades and even life sentences for crimes where they neither killed nor intended to kill, arguing that such outcomes undermine public confidence in the justice system and waste taxpayer resources by incarcerating people long after they pose any public safety threat.

Among the report’s findings:

• The United States remains an international outlier, with felony murder laws in 48 states, Washington, D.C., and the federal system. Only Hawaii and Kentucky do not have felony murder statutes.
• Felony murder convictions can trigger some of the harshest punishments in the American legal system: life without parole is mandated or permitted in 39 states, Washington, D.C., and the federal system, while roughly half of all states allow the death penalty in felony murder cases—even though research has found little evidence that these laws improve public safety or reduce crime.
• Black people and other communities of color are disproportionately impacted by felony murder laws and are overrepresented among those convicted and imprisoned under these statutes.
• Women convicted under felony murder laws are frequently punished for deaths they did not cause. A California survey found 72% of women serving life sentences for felony murder were not the person who committed the homicide.
• Young people are disproportionately affected by felony murder laws. In Pennsylvania, nearly three-quarters of people serving LWOP for felony murder were 25 or younger at the time of their offense, while more than half of people charged with aiding and abetting felony murder in Minnesota were 25 or younger.

“With one in six people in U.S. prisons serving a life sentence, addressing mass incarceration requires confronting laws that continue to funnel people into some of the most extreme punishments in our legal system, including felony murder statutes,” said Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., Director of Research at The Sentencing Project and co-author of the report. “Felony murder laws sit at the intersection of some of the most pressing challenges in the criminal legal system, including extreme sentencing, racial and gender disparities, and the overuse of life imprisonment. As jurisdictions across the country reconsider these laws, they have an opportunity to ensure that punishment better reflects a person’s actual conduct, intent, and culpability.”

The report concludes that meaningful reform requires more than incremental change. The Sentencing Project recommends states follow a roadmap for reform that includes eliminating life-without-parole and death sentences for felony murder, protecting young people and emerging adults, narrowing accomplice liability, ending prosecutions for deaths caused by third parties, requiring meaningful proof of intent, and applying reforms retroactively.